| Northampton-Mill
River Flood Plain Site |
dbhg-@comcast.net |
| Nov
22, 2003 15:20 PST |
Will,
Colby, Lee, et al.:
This afternoon, I had a couple of hours and went to the
Northampton Mill River flood plain site and scored big. The
attached spreadsheet has the details.
For anyone unable to open attachments, here are the numbers:
Species Height Circumference
BLCT 117.6 6.3 (YEEEHAAA)
BLCT 115.6 6.7
BLCT 108.4 7.7
CW 108.4 8.6
SVM 107.5 7.8
SVM 106.8 8.2
BLCT 105.4 8.0
BNH 103.3 7.2
CW 102.6 8.8
SVM 99.0 10.5
The black locust is a new state record. In fact both break the
previous record from the same site. The Rucker index for the
site is now 110.33. The species make up follows.
Species Height Circumference
TT 129.8 11.5
BLCT 117.6 6.3
SM 114.7 3.8
CW 111.9 8.6
BUN 111.7 6.0
SVM 107.5 7.8
BC 106.9 5.3
BNH 104.9 10.3
AB 102.2 7.2
NRO 96.1 9.6
Index 110.33 7.64
BUN is butternut. Neat, huh? The 110.33 is not bad. I think I
can nudge the index up to 111, but not higher. There are many
silver maple candidates. However, the region of interest is
still a relatively small site and I've covered just about 75% of
it. I could raise the index now if we included non-native
species. There is an English oak, a European beech, and a Norway
spruce all over 100 at the site.
Bob
|
| Northampton-Mill
River Flood Plain Site-Virtue of Persistence |
dbhg-@comcast.net |
| Nov
23, 2003 13:35 PST |
ENTS:
What's better than 1 day out on the Mill river flood plain? Ah
yes, 2 days. Well, today was picture perfect for tree measuring
and I had several objectives to accomplish: (1) verify the black
locust champ from up on the terrace where I could see all the
top branches, (2) measure more of the silver maples in the flood
plain, (3) verify that the big tuliptree had indeed lost height,
and (4) re-measure the English oak. Got them all. First, the
numbers.
Northampton Mill River Flood Plain
Species Height
Circumference
Tuliptree 132.1 13.5
Black locust 118.7 6.3
Sugar maple 114.7 3.8
Cottonwood 111.9 8.6
Butternut 111.7 6.0
Bitternut h. 110.0 5.5
Sivler maple 107.5 7.8
Black cherry 106.9 5.3
American beech 102.2 7.2
N. red oak 96.1 9.6
Rucker index 111.2 7.4
English oak 103.5 9.9
European beech 101.2 10.6
Black birch 90.2 5.1
The tuliptree regains its temporarily lost status and adds a
foot. The story of its measurement and up and down height is a
long one and I won't go into it here. I'm satisfied that the
tree remains the real champion.
The Rucker index for the terrace-flood plain rises to 111.2.
This probably pushes the limit for a single site within the
terrace-flood plain areas of the Connecticut River Valley.
Should I be fortunate enough to find an area with white pine,
sycamore, cottonwood, black locust, tuliptree all well
represented, a Rucker index of 115 might be possible, but the
combination is not unlikely in a limited area.
The English oak is a sweetie and its shape is
forest grown. I don't have a feeling for its age. I guess
between 95 and 120 years.
Bob |
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