| Blue
Hills Res, White Pine measurement 7/16 |
Andrew
Joslin |
| Jul
16, 2006 17:13 PDT |
I climbed and measured a good sized White Pine in the Blue Hills
Reservation, Milton, Massachusetts today. This is a tree in the
general area of a grove that some of you may be familiar with.
It's
on the north facing side of a hill above Chestnut Run Brook off
of
Unquity Road. There was an old giant pine in there that fell a
few
years back in the infamous late April snowstorm. The tree
measured
today is not especially noteworthy compared to the big ones in
MTSF
but is tall for the area.
Here's a description of the tree and climb:
The tree is growing in a mixed hardwood/pine forest, it's
healthy
with a straight trunk and has a large burl at chest height. I
measured diameter above the burl and got 35.5 inches. I placed a
throwline over the first good-sized live branch at 79 ft. using
a
slingshot and climbed a single rope using ascenders to the
branch.
From there I switched over to doubled rope technique and climbed
up
to a crotch at the top of the tree where the trunk divided into
two
leaders. I stood up in the crotch measured from there down to my
first tie-in point. The measurement put my head at 106 feet. I
conservatively estimated 10 ft. of tree over my head to the top
so
I'm calling it 116 ft. The top of the tree projected well out of
the
hardwood canopy.
It would be interesting to see what an accurate laser
measurement
would get. I think this is the tallest tree in the grove but
there
are 7 or 8 other good-sized pines to be looked at. There are two
fairly tall Eastern Hemlock in the grove, they have HWA but are
hanging in there for now.
Andrew Joslin
Jamaica Plain, MA |
|