Deerfield River near Shelburne Falls

Re: Deerfield River Corridor	dbhg-@comcast.net
	Nov 20, 2003 05:10 PST

John Eichholz, John Knuerr, Gary Beluzo, Howard Stoner, et al:

A few thoughts about Rucker Indices and the Deerfield River corridor. It will be interesting to see if continued searching from the mouth of the Deerfield to the Vermont border will produce many taller trees to replace those recorded for MTSF and MSF. From work done already done at Bardwell Ferry, South River, the lower Deerfield River Valley, and near Shelburne Falls, it appears doubtful for all except the cottonwood and chestnut oak. But only time will tell. I guess what I'm aiming toward is a better accounting for the high indices of Mohawk and Monroe. I am virtually certain that no other state location can ven come close to challenging Mohawk, but a lot more sampling along the Deerfield River gorge will also give us a picture of where the tall tree concentrations are and what each species does along the river corridor and what the differential is between typical good sites and Mohawk. For instance, will enough searching eventually turn up a scattering of 130-foot ash trees, so that Mohawk's and Monroe's uniqueness is their concentration as opposed to their uniqueness? John Eichholz's 116-foot ash will not be uncommon along the river corridor, however, if he tags an ash at 125, that will be noteworthy and if he tags one at 130, well then, it'll be ape call time.

John, we'll have an ear turned to the wind awaiting a far away simian sound.

Bob

Deerfield River near Shelburne Falls	John Eichholz
	Dec 19, 2004 16:37 PST

ENTS:

I completed a Rucker index on the Mahican -- Mohawk Trail upstream from
the Bardwell's Ferry bridge along the Deerfield river. This is part of
field work to determine if the Deerfield River corridor holds other high
growth sites similar to those in the Mohawk Trail State Forest. Most of
the trees in the index set are in a small cove basin near Dragon Brook,
on the North bank of the Deerfield. Further searching may add to the
index by adding sugar maple and taller bigtooth aspen for sure. There
were several nice basswood, and some nice beech in the 100' range, even
younger ones. The bitternut hickories were larger and older than I have
seen locally. Near the bridge abutments, there are several tall oak and
Shagbark hickories. The south bank upstream from the bridge is state
forest, and probably will produce an even higher index. The white pine
was on the south bank. Today's trees:

species	height	CBH
White Pine	129.32
Northern Red Oak	114.82	5.7
Eastern Hemlock	108.39
Shagbark Hickory	107.87	4
White Ash	104.9
American Basswood	102.87	6.3
Bitternut Hickory	101.95	6.7
Red Maple	99.05	10.2
American Beech	97.94	8.6
Bigtooth Aspen	95.41

The Rucker index for these is 106.2.

Other trees near the bridge:

species	height	CBH
Northern Red Oak	114.23	7.4
Northern Red Oak	108.14	7.7
Northern Red Oak	109.94	5.2
Northern Red Oak	108.52	6.6

So far I have a Rucker index for the Deerfield river between Shelburne
Falls and the Bardwell's Ferry bridge of 110.3, composed of the following:

species	height	CBH	stand
Eastern Hemlock	109.46	7.6	Wilcox Hollow
Red Spruce	108.96	5.4	Wilcox Hollow
Bigtooth Aspen	105.72	5.4	Wilcox Hollow
Norway Spruce	115.83	7	Wilcox Hollow
Red Pine	103.14	5.8	Wilcox Hollow
White Pine	129.32		Bardwell's Ferry bridge
Northern Red Oak	114.82	5.7	Bardwell's Ferry bridge
Shagbark Hickory	107.87	4	Bardwell's Ferry bridge
American Basswood	102.87	6.3	Bardwell's Ferry bridge
White Ash	104.9		Bardwell's Ferry bridge

Rucker index 110.3.

Without Norway spruce, the index is 108.9, with the 102' bitternut
hickory replacing the Norway spruce.

John

Re: Deerfield River near Shelburne Falls	Fores-@aol.com
	Dec 20, 2004 06:12 PST

John:

FYI....the cove you were in is a part of my parents farm and if you get a
little higher in elevation you will see some exceptional red oak trees that I
showed Bob and Gary last year.

I would strongly encourage checking out some of the pine and red oak at the
lower reaches of the Bear River in Conway State Forest. The old Andrew Hart
farm had some incredible oak and white pine and I expect some of them are
still standing.

The stretch of the hiking trail from the railroad bridge to the other side
of Dragon Brook was rebuilt by one of my nephews as a project for his Eagle
badge in Boy Scouts a few year ago!

My family's property runs along the river from the railroad crossing to
Dragon Brook.

Russ Richardson

RE: Deerfield River near Shelburne Falls	John Eichholz
	Dec 21, 2004 17:03 PST

ENTS:

I took another field trip to the Bardwell's Ferry Bridge area. This time
I went along the south bank of the Deerfield river, in the South River
State Forest. This is the area Russ noted recently. I never made it
all the way to Bear River, since the terraces near the Bardwell Ferry
bridge were quite interesting. I picked up new heights for white ash,
American beech, sugar maple, American basswood and bigtooth aspen. There
are many red oak over 110', and I think with more searching one of them
may top 115'. 120' is possible. Ash is sort of rare. Red oak, beech,
sugar maple and birches are the predominant species in the bridge area.
Further in white pine, hemlock and aspen make a showing. There is an
old roadbed above the river, with large oaks both on the bank above and
in the river terrace below.

The Rucker index I have for the Deerfield river between Shelburne Falls
and the Bardwell's Ferry Bridge bridge is composed of:

Species	Height	CBH	Location
White Pine	129.3		Bardwell's Ferry Bridge
White Ash	115.4	4.9	Bardwell's Ferry Bridge
Northern Red Oak	114.8	5.7	Bardwell's Ferry Bridge
Sugar Maple	109.7		Bardwell's Ferry Bridge
Eastern Hemlock	109.5	7.6	Wilcox Hollow
Bigtooth Aspen	109.3	5.8	Bardwell's Ferry Bridge
Red Spruce	109	5.4	Wilcox Hollow
Shagbark Hickory	107.9	4	Bardwell's Ferry Bridge
American Basswood	106.3	6.6	Bardwell's Ferry Bridge
Red Pine	103.1	5.8	Wilcox Hollow

Rucker index 111.4 5.7

If Norway Spruce is included (115.8' h, 7.0'cbh), the index rises to
112.7. If only trees from the Bardwell Ferry area are included, the
index is 110.5. I don't have enough diversity to get a Rucker index for
the Wilcox Hollow / Shelburne State Forest area yet.

There are probably taller trees in there but I haven't found them yet.

John

Jon Eichholz's finds	Robert Leverett
	Dec 22, 2004 10:33 PST

John:

Good show. John Knuerr and I found a terrace just above the Deerfield River
south of Shelburne Falls, going north from Conway Station and got the following numbers:

   Species          Height          Circumference

   White ash         123.6              6.5
   Hemlock           117.6              7.5
   N. red oak        116.1              8.8
   Yellow birch      100.4              6.7


Bob

RE: Jon Eichholz's finds	Robert Leverett
	Dec 22, 2004 13:02 PST

Ed:

John Eichholz, John Knuerr, Susan Scott, and I have divided the stream into 3
sections for computing Rucker Indices:

(1) Deerfield from Stillwater Bridge to Bardwell Ferry.

(2) Deerfield from Bardwell Ferry to Shelburne Falls.

(3) Deerfield above Shelburne Falls.

John Eichholz is now working on the (2) section.

Bob

Lower Deerfield River	dbhg-@comcast.net
	Dec 28, 2004 04:07 PST

Michelle:

The overall Rucker index for the lower Deerfield River Valley will go up when we include trees that John Knuerr and I documented on two occasions. It will be interesting to see if we can eventually get to 120 on the lower Deerfield. So far, it looks like we won't make it, which makes MTSF and even MSF even more statistical anomalies.

In terms of red pine, it seems to grow well where planted along the Deerfield. The stands at MTSF and on what was New England Power Co. land at the mouth of Dunbar Brook are impressive. Both stands date to the mid-1930s and have trees commonly 95 to 110 feet tall and 4 to 4.5 feet in circumference, packed in like sardines. I've seen stands around reservoirs in the Hill towns that are pretty ratty. Nothing to get excited about, but the stands long the Deerfield are of a different quality.

Bob

Home