Gaines,
You raise some very important points that I've often wondered about. We often
give past reports on tree dimensions a level of credibility that they probably
don't deserve, especially when we know nothing of who measured trees or how it
was done. We assume that if a tree was measured on the ground, it would have
been done with a high level of accuracy, that whoever was doing the measuring
had a reason to to take extra time trying to get the most accurate measurement
possible. I'm unsure of why it would have been any different in the past versus
today.
Bob
----- Original Message -----
From: "spruce" <[email protected]>
To: "ENTSTrees" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 5, 2010 10:16:02 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: [ENTS] Re: White pine growth rates--something of interest about growth
possibilities
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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