ENTS: Another point--I admit a bit off the point of the topic I myself started here--is that the reports of 250 foot white pines came from a time when there were not the same means so widely available for measuring the heights of standing trees. And, as a part time logger who has cut down some 80 plus foot white pine trees, I can report that they are not easy to measure once cut down. This is because when a very tall tree crashes to the ground, it really does "crash." I have taken careful measurements of many of the trees I have cut down, and often the top is shattered. This is particularly true of white pines. To measure a tall white pine after I have cut it down I really have to do some reconstruction of the top, which usually shatters and and the pieces are scattered a bit. Now, if this happens with mere 80 footers, I can imagine that a much larger section of the top of a 200 plus white pine will be shattered, and scattered, after falling. This can make accurate measurements of a tree that has been felled a little more difficult than one might think.
How much the top of a tree shatters when it is felled depends very much of the species. Norway spruce shattter relatively little, while a tall tuliptree ( I think this is the proper name for this species, not "yellow poplar," if you will indulge me) shatters more than any other kind of tree that I have experience with. With a tall tuliptree that I might want to measure, the top often shatters so badly that without taking much more trouble than I would normally have time for, I will just make a rough quess about the length of the shattered part. --Gaines
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