ENTS,

Folks, my project plate is really full these days. I am forced to chop a way (no pun intended) at my many time consuming endeavors. One self-imposed mission is to document in images, words, and numbers the forest treasures of Massachusetts. I have several reasons for taking on this project, one of which is to share some of the hidden corners of our forests with others who otherwise would never know of their existence. A second reason is to help the Department of Conservation and Recreation document the special places that have heretofore been under-described and consequently under-appreciated.
Today Monica and I went to the Mount Tom State Reservation and I took three photos for documentation purposes. I'd like to share them with my fellow and lady Ents and with the others that I am copying.
The first image is of one of the big white pines on Mount Tom. It is 133.3 feet tall and 10.8 feet in girth. It is a particularly handsome tree and slightly large for a mature Mount Tom pine. Small hemlocks surround it. The big pine is in good shape and hopefully has at least 100 years left of life. I keep close tabs on this tree.
The second image was taken well off the trail system in one of the secluded little coves. The basalt ledge is rather striking. However, the trees in the area of the basalt ledges grow in challenging conditions. Solid bedrock is only inches below the surface of the ground. Tree longevity here is not great. In the past, the European settlers of the region stripped Mount Tom of its original forest cover - not a wise action to take on the slopes of Mount Tom. Soils are compromised and the re-growth struggles to make ages much beyond 125 or 130 years. Today, deer add insult to injury by browsing the re-growth.
The last image is of the New England champion eastern hemlock. It is a very large tree as can be seen in the photograph with Monica present to provide a sense of proportion (she's brushing off a pesky mosquito in the image). It will be fall before I can re-measure the champ's height due to canopy closure. However, at the end of the last growing season, the big hemlock's dimensions were: height = 125.0 feet, girth = 14.9 feet, and average crown spread = 49.0 feet. This gives our champ 316 points. In the point department, it has no close rivals in New England. The hemlock's trunk volume is approximately 750 cubic feet as determined using a Macroscope 25/45.

Bob

WhitePineGiant.jpg 540K View Download

MonicaAndBasalt.jpg 634K View Download

MtTomHemlock.jpg 505K View Download