| Red
spruce on Mt. Greylock |
dbhg-@comcast.net |
| Jun
19, 2005 06:20 PDT |
ENTS:
After an absence of 4 years,
I returned to the steep western slopes of Mount Greylock in an
area known as the Hopper - an old glacial cirque. It is an area
rich in species partly because of the underlying bedrock
contains calcium. For this trip, I had a particular destination
in mind. I wanted to remeasure the Northeast's champion spruce.
Growing near a waterfall, I feared that it might have fallen,
but to the contrary it was growing handsomely. The climb to get
to the spruce requires an elevation gain of 1,000 feet, about
half off trail. The spruce is in a deep ravine with extremely
good protection. It stick up prominently above all trees in its
vicinity, and rightly so. Its height is an amazing 133.5 feet.
That exceeds by 17 feet the second tallest that I've measured of
its species in the Northeast.
Bob
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| Re:
Red spruce on Mt. Greylock |
ecri-@juno.com |
| Jun
19, 2005 20:53 PDT |
Wow!
The 17' taller than the next tallest known is quite impressive.
What else grows in the area? A cirque with a good calcium supply
sounds
like a fun place to spend the day hunting for trees.
Jess
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| #74
and other news |
Robert
Leverett |
|
Jun
20, 2005 07:04 PDT |
Will,
Jess, et al.:
On a check of my records I last measured the
red spruce on
11/11/2000. So it has had 5 growing seasons instead of 4 to gain
4.3
feet. In actuality, when I measured it last, I got 129.7 as one
of the
measurements, but opted to record the more conservative, as I
usually do
when it comes to reporting a champion of height. Jess, indeed,
Mount
Greylock is a treasure. Rich woods species like maidenhair fern,
blue
cohosh, wild ginger, foam flower, etc. are abundant, so is the
imprint
of past disturbances. There are fire-successional stands of
200-year old
red spruce. There also is at least one red spruce dating to
around 420
years.
On the steep slopes that have been subject to several classes of
disturbances, large striped maple are common. On Saturday I
measured
striped maple with the following circumferences expressed in
inches:
33,31, 30, 30, 30, 26. I have measured striped maple on Greylock
to 40
inches. I measured a white ash to (125.0, 6.8), which is about
as tall
as I ever see on Greylock. A conspicuously large N. red oak
proved to be
(89.5, 11.3). While leading a group of 11 people, I couldn't
measure
much on Saturday and plan to return later this summer on a tall
tree-big
tree expedition. Jess, I'll describe more fully the forest
complex of
Greylock in a future e-mail. For now, its on to MTSF.
Robert T. Leverett
Cofounder, Eastern Native Tree Society
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| RE:
#74 and other news |
Will
Blozan |
| Jun
20, 2005 07:14 PDT |
Bob,
Huge maples Bob! How tall have you seen them? 70' or so and you
may have a
champion. We have 2 over 70' here in the Smokies, the tallest
77.2'
(lasered). I found one last week in Cataloochee that I have not
measured
yet- I had a backpack full of gear at the time. It was quite
impressive and
may push the 70' mark with a spread close to 40' long-ways.
Will B
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| RE:
#74 and other news |
Robert
Leverett |
| Jun
20, 2005 12:34 PDT |
Will:
I am currently at 62 feet maximum on striped
maple. I do not ever
expect to break 70 feet. However, I probably eventually will
find a 42
or 43-inch circumference striped maple. MTSF has quite a few
30-inchers
and one that I measured to 39. Most folks who recognize the
species and
accompany me to the OG are astounded at the striped maples in
OG areas.
Bob
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