Weekend forays   Robert Leverett   Jun 04, 2007 06:38 PDT  ENTS, SATURDAY Broad Brook     On Saturday, Gary Beluzo and I went searching for tuliptrees along Broad Brook, a small stream that runs behind my wife Monica's house in Florence, MA. Locating tuliptrees is part of the study Gary intends to pursue on his sabbatical. I will be assisting him document and study the natural range of Liriodendron in Massachusetts. It is an exciting proposition for me that the favored tree of my childhood, spent in the southern Appalachians, reaches its natural northeastern limit between 5 and 7 miles from where I currently live. That is somewhere between way cool and way, way cool.      Broad Brook starts at just under a mile north of Monica's house and cuts a ravine for its first mile before flowing into Fitzgerald Lake, a conservation area that is a couple of tenths of a mile east of Monica’s house. The Broad Brook Coalition, a conservation group, oversees the municipal property. Monica was a past president of the Coalition and is one the board.      The Broad Brook corridor supports a mature forest along part of its path. The elevation drop of Broad Brook from source to terminus is only about 250 feet. The overall topographical relief along the Broad Brook corridor is about 400 feet, so it this a complex of hills as opposed to mountains. The number of tree species that can be found along the 4-mile corridor probably numbers around 30. It may be slightly more. We shall see. The meandering stream and its associated corridor just happen to be one of the tuliptree corridors that Gary and I will be studying. That is way, way cool.       Fighting gnats, mosquitoes, pollen, high humidity, ticks, and a stubborn cold, I wasn’t in prime shape, but nothing could deter either of us from finding our quarry. One old tulip we stumbled onto measures 7.7 feet in circumference and is 116.5 feet tall. It may be the patriarch-matriarch of the group in the upper reaches of Broad Brook. For most of the stands Gary has located and measured near the northeastern range limit of Liriodendron, the old tulip is about as large and tall as they get. We see lots that are from 6.0 to 7.5 feet in girth. Looking at these slender trees, it is hard to accept that the behemoths of the southern Appalachian coves are the identical species. It is true that isolated tuliptrees in western Massachusetts growing in deep, well-watered soils can grow larger. We do see a very few heights between 130 and 135 feet and one at 140. Girths of the biggest of these trees (not street trees) are between 11 and 12 feet, or about half the maximum in the South. In fact, these northeastern tulips reach 75 percent of the height maximum for the species and 50 percent of the girth maximum.      By contrast, street tuliptrees in western Massachusetts can reach between 14 and 16 feet in girth, although most are less. More typically, a big one measures around 12 feet in girth. However, Gary and I measured a huge tuliptree in Florence on a street at 122.6 feet in height and 16.4 feet around. Its maximum crown spread is 94 feet. Its owner is very proud of her tree. A second street tree in Florence is 14.0 feet around and 117.3 feet tall, which just about matches one in Sheffield, MA. There are other street trees in various western Mass towns that are in the 12-14 foot girth class, but usually more on the order of 12. The height range for the big street tulips is generally 110 to 120 feet. Only rarely do they go above 120. It requires deep soils in ravines to produce the extra 15 feet.     All in all, we were happy with the scattering of tulip trees that we discovered along the Broad Brook corridor on Saturday and we still have close to a half mile left to explore to the head of the brook and at least a mile of the lower part of the drainage. As previously mentioned, the upper reaches of Broad Brook are between 5 and 7 miles from the northeastern-most stand of tuliptrees that we known of. So, the corridor is scientifically important to us. We need to piece together the history of the Broad brook corridor. Past logging at points along the corridor has eliminated many large oaks and pines. Stumps remaining are well along in decay, but enough remains to suggest a high density of trees 2.5 to 3.5 feet in diameter. That’s large enough to create a handsome forest. But despite the logging, there are plenty of impressive trees left. There is no evidence of the all too typical modern-day Massachusetts high grade. Some of the standing trees appear to be between 150 and 200 years old and that range will eventually be verified. The mere existence of the pines and tulip trees speak to the likelihood of open fields and wood lots at in the past.     What is neat for me is that Broad Brook is literally in my back yard and it is exciting to be able to stroll out the back door and into a forest that has a very respectable scattering of stately trees with opportunity for more discoveries. By quick calculations, the forested area following the brook northward from Monica's house to where the land opens up covers about 750 acres. I’ve come to realize that a lot of forest surprises can be packed into no more and a few hundred acres. Three and a half years ago I was in deep depression from the loss of my wife Jani. Then I would have never imagined that I would eventually be at the doorstep of retirement and living among an abundance of quite respectable trees. But what am I calling respectable? Well, so far, I've measured 29 trees along Broad Brook that exceed 115 feet in height, two of which exceed 130 - white pines of course. The composition of the 29 trees is as follows:      17 white pines        6 tuliptrees        2 hemlocks        1 pignut hickory     There are many more pines above 115, but there may not be any more tuliptrees. I think there will be a few more hemlocks and maybe one or two trees of other species such as sugar maple or another hickory. In terms of 120s, we have the pines and the tuliptrees, and so far, no prospect of adding a third species.     How about girth? The largest single-stem trees I've measured along Broad Brook include a white pine at 11.3 feet in circumference and a tuliptree at 11.2. Today, Gary and I found a huge double-stem pine that measures 14.2 feet around and is 133.2 feet tall. It was tempting to call it one tree, but it shows the telltale seam. It splits at above 10 feet, so there is no measuring the largest single trunk. This form of tree begs for a classification and measurement methodology. Mill River     Early on Saturday, Gary and I followed a path down to the Mill River. The path cut through some outstanding trees. Gary and I measured a northern red oak at 9.3 feet in girth and 120.1 feet in height. That is a height record for an oak of any species in the Connecticut River Valley region. So the northern red joins the white pine, tuliptree, sycamore, white ash, pignut hickory, hemlock, red pine, and cottonwood as species that have been documented in the Valley to 120 feet in height or more. Only the white pine, tuliptree, and sycamore have so far been documented to over 130 in the Valley region and only white pine and tuliptree reach to 140. It turns out that the super oak is adjacent to the estate of a wealthy friend of Monica’s who always asks how I am doing. So getting access to the property to measure some super trees will not be a problem. SUNDAY Dunbar Brook-MSF     On Sunday, Monica and I visited an old-growth stand in MSF, the sister to MTSF. The purpose was to continue Phase-I of Tsuga Search-Massachusetts and identify individual hemlocks and/or clusters worthy of treating. The elevation change to reach the spot is slightly over 600 feet, so the climb is not long, but it is off trail and people very rarely see the place. The coordinates of the site are 42.70 degrees latitude and 72.96 degrees longitude. The altitude of the center of the site is approximately 1,575 feet above sea level. The hemlocks were photographed in 1994 in the making of the television documentary “The Web of Life” by then existing WQED National public TV in Pittsburgh. The station no longer exists. But the trees were documented for posterity. There are only four hemlocks at the chosen location and there were chosen for heritage tree status (pending) and designated as H1-MSF-DBB-HM, H2-MSF-DBB-HM, H3-MSF-DBB-HM, and H4-MSF-DBB-HM. Their measurements and age ranges follow.    Hemlock    Hgt     Girth   Age     H1            118.4    9.7     250+     H2            106.3   10.7    250+     H3            103.7   11.3    250+     H4            102.3     6.7    250+     This trip by Monica and me signals the start of identification and nomination of Massachusetts Heritage Hemlocks. Although there has been no official criteria for the designation, great age, size/height, aesthetic appeal, location in an old-growth stand, or association with historic or cultural events seem reasonable criteria to consider. The Dunbar trees have sufficient age, 3 have the size/height, 3 have considerable aesthetical appeal, and all are located in an old-growth area. THE BIG CHALLENGE     Locating heritage hemlocks will be the easy part of the Tsuga Search-Massachusetts mission. There are ways to make the process efficient without being expensive in terms of costs to those of us who will identify most of the trees and we’ll have to do extra planning, given the high price of gasoline. But the real challenge is to going to be to get state officials solidly behind the program and to accept our recommendations for treatment. The state officials will be supportive in a general kind of way, but indecisive about what should be actually saved and what should be let go. Bob Robert T. Leverett Cofounder, Eastern Native Tree Society   Home