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ENTS,
Today Monica and I returned to Mohawk Trail State
Forest, our woodland Mecca, to check on several important trees. Of
course, I had to remeasure the Jake Swamp white pine - tallest known
tree in New England. Using 3 lasers, I finally settled on 169.3
feet. I may be over by a tenth of a foot, but I want to give Jake
the benefit of the doubt. Jake is the tree flagship of New England.
After measuring Jake, Monica and I went on to the Algonquin Grove
and I confirmed two new 140s in the south end of the grove that
didn't have any 140s a few years ago. However, it now has at least
three and probably five or six. In the center of the grove, 140s and
150s are the rule with two 160s. Heights at the north end trail off
into the 120s and 130s. The north end receives the brunt of the
winds.
While at the north end of the Algonquin grove, I
happened to look down to a lower terrance and noticed a very
tall-looking pine in an area of otherwise young trees that I've not
heretofore bothered to measure. It is the north end of the area we
identify as the Frog Pond Grove. The tree turned out to be 146.5
feet in height with a girth of a very modest 7.3 feet. The discovery
opened my eyes to the super fast growth of the Frog Pond Pines. I
will return to catalog all the 140s in the grove.
The Frog Pond pine inspired me so I compiled a list of
the tallest pine in each of the 15 named groves of Mohawk white
pines. The named groves is the system for keeping track of what is
where. I often can't get GPS coordinates under the tall canopy and
have to resort to other schemes to oranize the lot of them.
The following table shows why Mohawk trail State Forest
is such an extraordinary place. In the table for age class,
M=mature, O=old growth, and Y=young. I consider young to be under
120 years. Mature is 120 to 174 years, and old is 175 years or
older.
Before presenting the table, I'll briefly mention the
5 attached images. They are all in MTSF. Two are of meadows. One
shows the new Algonquin pine and two are in the Frog Pond Grove. The
last image shows Monica with one of her named pines - the Sweetie
Pie Pine. It is young tree and growing like a weed. I didn't measure
it today, but it will be around 141.5 feet. It was 140.5 at the end
of the last growing season. I now believe that the Frog Pond Pine
Grove is the one to watch. All the trees fall into the young age
class and are growing very fast. BTW, my definition of young in a
white pine is at variance with what timber specialists would
consider young.
Tallest tree in each
grove in MTSF
Grove Tree
Height-Ft
Girth-Ft
DBH-IN Age Class
Trees of Peace Jake Swamp
169.3 10.4 39.7 M
Elders Saheda
164.9 11.6 44.3 O
Algonquin
Algonquin
161.2 8.9 34.0 M
ENTS Lee Frelich
160.4 8.5 32.5 M
Shunpike
Brant
160.2 11.1 42.4 M
Mast Pines
Forked Pine 155.9
9.0 34.4 M
Pocumtuck
Will Blozan 153.3
7.3 27.9 Y
Cherokee-Choctaw
Jani 152.0 11.0
42.0 M
Trout Brook
Trout Brook 151.9
8.2 31.3 M
Kershner
Bruce's Tree 150.2
9.3 35.5 M
Frog Pond
Surprise
146.5 7.3 27.9 Y
Headquarters Nonni
144.4 9.7 37.1 O
Cold River
Big Boy
143.5 9.4 35.9 M
Indian Springs Old Man
140.8 9.7 37.1 O
Todd Mtn Northern Sentinel
137.1 10.6 40.5 M
Average
152.8 9.5 36.2
Continued
at:
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/f58c9e6b50aa973a?hl=en
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