140 above and below   dbhg-@comcast.net   Oct 02, 2003 17:06 PDT  ENTS: It is time for a fresh list of laser-clinometer measured white pines in New England that reach 140 feet in height or more. The attached Excel spreadsheet contains the list. It is obviously top heavy with Massachusetts trees. Of the 191 measured 140-footers, 162 are in Massachusetts. That imbalance will change in time to include more entries from adjacent New England States. I wouldn't be surprised if New Hampshire eventually equals or surpasses Massachusetts, but it will likely not happen for a long time. It will take a lot of looking. Massachusetts has plenty of 140-footers courtesy of 3 sites: Mohawk Trail State Forest, William Cullen Bryant Homestead, and Ice Glen. There is a thin scattering elsewhere, but no other concentrations that we've found and believe me, we've looked. The Claremont NH Stand is currently the Granite State's showpiece. The list shows 11 white pines over 150 and 12 over 140. But believe me it likely has at least 20 over 150 and maybe 25. It has double to triple that over 140. We will look more this month.    I suspect other stands around the state will up the total of 150-footers by between 5 and 10. The odds favor it, but not more. Eventually, we'll get wind of the candidates and confirm them one by one. But for the present, Massachusetts is the clear winner.    Connecticut may have a 150-footer somewhere, but I haven't received any leads. Nor have I received any leads on anything in Rhode Island. The Cathedral Pines of Cornwall, CT once had many pines over 150 feet. I suspect they had 20 to 30. Close by Ballyhack had some 140-footers before the July 1989 blowdown. It now has one. Connecticut's state-managed Gold Pines are relative light weights. The site their on may not produce 150-footers, but at present, they're the Nutmeg State's premier stand.     Vermont must have a couple dozen 140-footers, but so far they have eluded us. The sure aren't in the timber-ravaged Northeast Kingdom. Trees in that corner are a joke.     Although, I'm primarily interested in stands of pines in the 140-foot class, I'll settle for less. One hundred and thirty-footers are worthwhile to explore in New England. Below 120 though, white pines with any age on them at all are commonplace throughout most of southern and central New England and are common as weeds in western Massachusetts and Connecticut.     Although dimensional thresholds are arbitrary, it can be a lot of fun to explore data hunting for special categories and classifications that seem to form natural groupings. More on this subject in a future e-mail. Bob     Re: 140 above and below   Fores-@aol.com   Oct 05, 2003 18:59 PDT  Bob: I just can't remember whether it was Wardsboro or West Wardsboro but Peck Lumber Company used to own land up there. Wardsboro is a few miles north of Wilmington on VT 100 and West Wardsboro is in the middle of nowhere. For much of the area white pine weevils were not a problem and some of the internodes on many of the best pines approached four feet. Howard often said he thought there was a slightly different race of white pine up there. A logger I know is harvesting some native white pine near Crummies Creek. The trees are quite large and average over 1000 board feet (Doyle log rule) per tree...about 1200-1300 BF International. He is getting $300/MBF for the but logs delivered to a log home mill 100+ miles away. Being that most of the butts are clear logs with no knots, I can't imagine what stuff like that is worth in NE. Russ Richardson   Home