The oldest official counts for ages of eastern trees are posted on Neil Pederson's Eastern OLD-List. Of the 310 species listed in eastern US (Audubon Field Guide), only 54 have "official" cross-dated ages. I want to collect ages from as many of the other species as possible from ring counts on stumps and cores. So I am asking ENTS members count everything you find, write down your information on where, when, who, and how and send them to me.  Check on the current age listings on Neil's website: http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~adk/oldlisteast/  for the most detailed information.

At this stage the primary goal is to collect ring count ages from any tree that is not on Neil Pederson's Eastern Old-List http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~adk/oldlisteast/Spp/THOC.html .  In addition I would like to include any tree ring counts that exceed the maximum ages that appear on the list, or that are comparable in age to those appearing on the list.  There is some inherent inaccuracies with ring counts. There may be false rings or missing rings, but these limitations are understood within the context of the methodology. They are trivial compared to the degree of error in field guides. Better age range information will be valuable when considering the ecology and history of the small patches of old growth we are finding and documenting.

For foresters and field people there will be a tenancy to not count rings on some stumps because you "know" there are older examples out there that you have seen. However at this point, there is such a paucity of good numbers, I would encourage you to count what you find. If we get older counts later so much the better, but the goal now is to get something more reasonable. Along access roads there may be shrub-sized species, like witch hazel for example, cut that are not normally harvested. Numbers for these species would be useful also.

A next step for the project, and one that can begin simultaneously, is the use of all collected data, both for "new" species and for old, to plot the ages known for various forests, and forest sections. This will allow a development of a beginning geographic data base of the age of various forests, and allow us to better understand and investigate the age structure of forest we are visiting and investigating.

Listing as an .xls file  ENTS Maximum Age List

Edward Frank

Notes:  

(*1) The Ecology and Silvics of Forest in the High Plateaus of Pennsylvania by A.F. Hough and R. D. Forbes, Ecological Monographs, Vol 13, No. 3, July 1943

(*2)  A Survey of Core-based Species Maximum Age Estimates in the Zoar Valley, Western New York State. Thomas P. Diggins, Department of Biological Sciences, Youngstown State University, Bulletin of the Eastern Native Tree Society, Volume 2, Issue 3,Summer 2007.

(*3) Laurel Knob, NC. Josh Kelly, 2007.  in http://primalnature.org/Laurel_Knob.pdf accessed Jan 12,2008.

(*4) The past, now dead, state champion sugar maple, affectionately named 'The Elephant Tree' had ~243 rings to a 0.5" punky center at 9.6ft up from its base.  At 9.6ft up, it was 5.3ft across.  It went to 823ft^3 of actual taped volume in a 44.5ft log!

(*5) Here is a short list I have from my experience. Mockernut Hickory 202 RC (All trees are from the Srs of St Francis
grounds) Black Oak 176 RC.  Bitternut Hickory 262 extrapolated.  Norway Spruce 172 RC.  Scott Wade, January 13, 2008

(*6) Measurements were art of Bruce P. Allen's PhD thesis research http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?acc_num=osu1179427491 Vegetation dynamics and response to disturbance of floodplain forest ecosystems with a focus on lianas reported in a discussion to the ENTS list January 1, 2009

(*7) Abrams, Marc. D. and Orwig, David A., 1996.  A 300-year history of disturbance and canopy recruitment for co-occurring white pine and hemlock on the Allegheny Plateau, PA.  Journal of Ecology (1996) 84:353-363.

Collection Form:

The following information would be needed:
1) Species name:
2) Location: Include name of forest, address (if applicable) county, state, GPS (if known):
3) Date of field sampling/counting:
4) Type of sampling;
a) Field count of tree stump or log
b) Field count of increment borer core
c) laboratory count of tree cross-section
d) laboratory count of increment borer core
e) Other method - please describe
5) Was a sample collected and if so, what is its disposition?
6) Diameter of tree:
7) Is the sample complete or partial:
6) Collector Name and address, phone, email:
7) Is the tree still alive or is it dead? (Living, Snag, Stump, Log, Remnant)
8) Description of the site, associated trees, land use history, etc.
9) Site Code (if applicable)
10) Photographs of the sample/sample area: yes or no.
11) Age character/category:

.Age Category Definitions

This category deals with the apparent age of the specimen as interpreted by the collector. There are three
broad categories of age information that might be obtained from stumps or dendro cores. I would leave it up
to the person doing the collecting or counting to provide a judgment of which category in which to place the sample

1) Late Mature: This specimen represents an old tree, but trees in this age range are not uncommon.
2) Old tree: This specimen represents a tree that is uncommonly old for the species.
3) Very old: This specimen may be approaching the maximum age possible for the species.
4) Not categorized / Unknown

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