So I went back out this afternoon to where I found "the" big Elm last
week to see if I could find a higher point and spend some more time
measuring other trees in the area. Turns out.......I read the damn
clinometer wrong. Wasnt familiar with the equipment yet and made a
simple error to the tune of about 14.5' in height. D'oh. There goes
that state height record. I did something along the lines of reading
38* as 42* and bumped my numbers. Glad I remeasured it though, learned
something in the process and had me double checking every time.

Now onto the question. Found this tree. Area is primarily hardwoods,
Sugar Maple, Black Birch, Red Oak, few Elms, Pignut Hickory, some
Shagbark, some Red and Norway Maples. Few Beeches scattered here and
there. With leaves on it would be an easy ID, but winter time presents
its own challenges. I believe it to be a Boxelder (acer negundo),
mostly based on the bark characteristics, but I've never seen one this
big (standing up anyways). Tree is only 5.5' CBH, with a height of
112'. The bark isnt "plating" as I like to think of it anywhere on the
tree, like a Sugar or Red maple would start to, especially a tree of
this height. It retains the similar light furrowing and ridges as
shown in the picture of the trunk. Also got a picture of the twigs.
Yay, nay?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/jlacoy82/Acernegundo2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/jlacoy82/Acernegundo.jpg

And here is the Elm I found last week which was erroneously measured
to 130.7'. It really only makes it to 116.2' and the trunk is STILL
12.9' in circumference, at least I didnt screw that up! :) Best shot I
could get of the crown, and had to back WAY up for it at that.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/jlacoy82/Elm1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/jlacoy82/Elm2.jpg

My only other real notable besides the possibly tall Boxelder was a
Pignut Hickory I remeasured from last week and got a solid ID on,
putting it at 121.3' and 7.9' CBH.

As I trudged my way across the hillside (shot it with the clinometer
to be 60-70% in slope in some of the areas I was hiking up) noticed
this guy land atop a tree just slightly downslope of me and didnt seem
to be bothered by me one bit, sat there a good 5 minutes before
finally taking off.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/jlacoy82/Owl1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/jlacoy82/owl2.jpg

And my last addition..........thought I'd take a shot at trying to
condense all the info Bob Leverett, Ed Frank, Will Blozan and others
already all have out there into one image, make it a bit more of a
quick reference than anything. I know I had to do a bit of scrolling
around to find all the pertinent info originally, hopefully this makes
it a bit easier for someone else!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/jlacoy82/sinetopsinebottom.jpg

Jeff