| Welcome
to new members |
Robert
Leverett |
|
Jun
22, 2006 10:09 PDT |
ENTS,
Several weeks back our membership climbed to
130. Then 4 people
dropped off the list and our membership stood at 126. Since
then, 4 new
members have signed up. So, we are back up to 130. On behalf of
Will
Blozan, Lee Frelich, and myself and of the membership at large,
I would
like to welcome all of you. I won't go into the history of ENTS
here.
Our superb website designed and maintained by our webmaster Ed
Frank has
ample background information of ENTS. I invite each of your to
explore
the website, if you haven't already done that. However, please
feel free
to ask any questions you like and to participate fully along the
lines
of your interests. We're all equal in the eyes of the trees.
I would like to point out that you have joined ENTS at a
particularly
exciting time in our history. We have a number of important
missions and
projects underway. One of the most important is a forming
partnership
with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park GSMNP) to locate,
document,
study, and treat the greatest of the surviving eastern hemlocks.
Will
Blozan, the ENTS president, is busy as I write this
communication
working to save a fine stand of Carolina hemlocks in western
North
Carolinba on private property. There is no way to overstate the
importance of the hemlock treatment mission. You'll read lots of
posts
on the adelgid problem.
An ongoing mission of ENTS is to measure and
document outstanding
trees and stands of trees in the East. The website discusses our
exacting measurement techniques, so I'll not elaborate here. But
you'll
soon recognize that many of the posts to the ENTS list deal with
the
tree measuring and stand documentation mission. It won't always
be
apparent why we place so much emphasis on measurement accuracy,
but
suffice it to say that ENTS is THE elite tree measuring
organization in
the eastern United States. We are continuously pushing the
technology
and we are anxious to train as many of our members as have
interest in
measuring. We hold annual tree measuring workshops, often two,
but
always one. Our traditional home for the main annual tree
measuring
event, which is part of an annual ENTS rendezvous, is Mohawk
Trail State
Forest in western Massachusetts. We also hold periodic tree
measuring
workshops at Cook Forest State Park, PA. under the capable
leadership of
Cook Forest State Park naturalist and educational director Dale
Luthringer. We plan to expand the number of locations at which
we
conduct tree measuring workshops to include one or two sites in
the
Southeast. The GSMNP will likely be one.
Another significant ENTS mission is to measure
and document important
big tree-tall tree sites in the East. We do something called
Rucker
analysis. The process is explained on the website. It is with
the site
documentation mission that we have our greatest need for new
tree
measurers. There are large geographical areas that have no
coverage at
all. Only a few areas get really good coverage. The best of all
is
probably Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania team is superb. Dale
Luthringer,
Scott Wade, Anthony Kelly, Carl Harting, and Ed Frank make up
the A-Team
and illustrate what is possible to achieve with a few very good
people.
New England and eastern New York also has a strong team. John
Eichholz,
John Knuerr, Gary Beluzo, Susan Scott, Howard Stoner, Holly
Post, and
yours truly make up this team. Thereafter, the ranks thin out.
In the
central eastern region Darian Copiz stands by himself. In the
Southeast,
Will Blozan, Jess Riddle, and Michael Davie make up the
regulars. In the
central Mid-west, Tom Diggins is our sole representative, and in
the
upper Mid-west, Lee Frelich and Paul Jost are holding down the
fort for
a huge area. Don Bragg has the southwestern region of the
eastern forest
hall to himself. You can see why we actively seek new measurers.
A rather esoteric mission of ENTS is to
volume model our largest
eastern trees. This is a pursuit only for the absolutely
obsessed. It is
not an undertaking for anyone who is disinclined toward
mathematics. As
we complete the modelings, we will be able to state
authoritatively
which are our largest trees by volume. As you might imagine,
there is a
touch of sport in this mission.
In addition to our quantitatively driven
members, ENTS has
photographers, writers, musicians, herbalists, landscape
architects,
gardners, etc. with different interests in trees. The common
link is a
love of trees, especially large and artistic looking ones. We
are
especially fortunate to have published authors in ENTS.
The science side of ENTS has a slate of
PhDs with impressive
accomplishments. As best I can determine we have at least 15
PhDs on the
list. So, there is always someone around to field a technical
question
and give an authoritative answer, even in other fields. We have
meteorologists and geologists in ENTS.
As for other missions and
projects, thanks to Don Bragg's
leadership, we will soon see our first edition of The Bulletin
of the
Eastern Native Tree Society - an e-journal that will be
available to all
as a download. Don plans to have our first edition out in July.
A team of us is working on a
book on tree measuring, which will
spawn the discipline of dendromorphometry. That term is a tongue
twister, but appropriate. Dendromorphometry is a discipline that
is
distinct from forest mensuaration. We should complete the book
in 9
months to a year.
The last weekend in October,
we will have our annual ENTS
rendezvous in western Massachusetts. We'll have lectures at
Holyoke
Community College, a tree measuring workshop at Mohawk Trail
State
Forest, and an ENTS concert with live music, poetry, etc. at the
Federated Church of Charlemont, MA., two tree climbs by Will
Blozan,
and a field trip just to enjoy the trees It is all absolutely
free.
Regardless of tree interest, the
key in ENTS is to participate. We
are all equal in the eyes of the trees. Well, I've rambled
enough, so
with this introduction, I turn ENTS welcoming over to others.
Welcome
aboard.
Bob
Robert T. Leverett
Cofounder, Eastern Native Tree Society
|
|