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TOPIC: The John Okeefe Tree
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/8cd919ea5b027d32?hl=en
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== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Sat, Nov 8 2008 5:18 pm
From: dbhguru@comcast.net



ENTS,

On Friday evening I gave a lecture to an arbor society group in Bedford MA. The lecture was partly sponsored by Mass DPW. The presentation was on the old-growth forests of Massachusetts, a subject I know something about. The presentation was well attended and Monica had me ship-shape by show time. The presentation was very well attended and went well. The folks in the Bedford area are interested in the old growth and big trees. They shared their knowledge about locally growing big trees.
On our return trip Monica and I routed ourselves back via Petersham, MA on Route 122. There is a section that goes through Harvard Forest property and the forest on either side of the road is handsome. One pine stands out as larger than the others and I wanted to remeasure it. The last time I measured it was in 2000 when its dimensions were: height = 132.0 feet, girth = 11.9 feet. The pine had plenty of time to grow. Well, to cut to the chase, it is now 12.1 feet in girth and 139.2 feet in height. It is a fairly old tree and its trunk is a single shaft. This big pine is no cheater. The pine is named the John Okeefe Pine for Dr. John Okeefe of Harvard Forest's Fisher Museum. The next big one must be named after David Foster, the Director of Harvard Forest. Obviously, I have to find another as large as John's pine for David.

John's tree joins the growing list of really big Massachusetts pines. BTW, I keep gyrating the Massachusetts criteria for inclusion in the list. As of the latest version, a Massachusetts pine gets listed if it meets any of the following criteria:

1. Height >= 150 feet
2. Girth >= 12 feet
3. ENTS points >= 1500
4. Trunk volume >= 500 cubes

The following number of trees in my database for Massachusetts meet at least one of the criteria.

I'm really just getting started with the list. Lots of trees to measure. Lots of places to search. I'm certain there are other fine trees just waiting to be discovered, but I can't pass up the opportunity to point to MTSF's dominance.

Bob