Good Day in the Field MTSF MA Robert Leverett
August 4, 2009

ENTS,

While Monica practiced for her upcoming concerts, I hopped in the car and pointed it toward our forest, Mecca, Mohawk Trail State Forest. My car seemed to understand where I wanted to go and faithfully took me there. I had a dual mission: continuing the photographic documentation of Mohawk Trail State Forest and remeasuring some of the champion trees for which Mohawk is famous, at least among the measuring faithful.
The first tree I remeasured was the Algonquin Tree located in the Algonquin Pines Grove. The Algonquin Tree is flagship of the grove. Today's measurement places the tree at exactly 162.0 feet. It is now 9.1 feet in girth, so it joins the 9-feet-and-over girth club. I judge the tree's form factor to be about 0.38. If so, it would lead to a trunk volume of 405 cubic feet. However, standing back and looking at the tree, 405 seems a little low. If time permits, I'll use thew Macroscope to get a diameter at about 100 feet up. I took a long distance shot of the tree, but the experiment didn't work. My best shot is the one shown in attachment #1.
After the Algonquin Tree, I remeasured the William Commanda Tree, just a few yards away. William Commanda is the sage of the Canadian Algonquins. He has visited the location of his tree in the past and done ceremony. In parts of Europe, William is known as the great canoe maker. He has made canoes for royalty and he is the keeper of the Seven Fires Wampum Belts. Williams big tree tips the scales at 157.2 feet in height and 10.6 feet in girth. The form factor for William's tree is around 0.41. That makes the pine's calculated trunk volume 576 cubic feet. Attachment #2 shows William's tree. Yep, another trunk shot.
Next I measured the girth of the Frank Decontie tree. Frank was an Algonquin medicine man and advisor to Friends of Mohawk Trail State Forest. Frank passed away in August 2000. He attended the dedication of his tree. The girth of the Frank Decontie Tree is 10.35 feet. The last time I measured the height of Frank's tree, it was 160.9 feet. I'll confirm its present height later this year. Today I decided to concentrate on the tree next to Frank's. In the past, I've called it the Little Frank Decontie tree and the last time I measured it was on April, 2007. Well, today, I got 160.5 feet. So Little Frank joins the prestigious 160-Club, solidly becoming the 9th white pine in MTSF to surpass 160 feet. There may be 10. The Chief John Brown Tree is very close and sometimes I touch the magic 160, but other times the measurement falls short.
For the record, there are 10 (or maybe 11) trees in Massachusetts over 160 feet. Nine (or 10) of them are in Mohawk Trail State Forest and the other one is in Monroe State Forest, the huge Henry David Thoreau Pine. Assuming 10 pines in Massachusetts over 160, in all new England, we have 17. The 7 trees outside of Massachusetts are on a private property in New Hampshire.
Attachment #3 shows the Frank Decontie Tree (right) and the Little Frank Tree (left). You may note that the title of the attachment includes the name Peter. Peter is Frank's brother who has taken over Frank's role. I'm thinking of dedicating the tree to Peter, but first I need to contact him, get permission, and invite him to the naming ceremony. Following protocal with Native American elders is essential.
The next image looks high into the canopy of the Algonquin Pines. The sight is inspirational. When I go to the Algonquin Pines, I frequent the location of this image. There is a substantial difference between looking up into the canopy of 90 to 100-foot trees versus those near and above 150. This brings me to a point.
There are at least 86 great whites in Mohawk that exceed 150 feet. I suspect the number may be 90 by now. It takes a huge effort to confirm the height of a pine located in the middle of a grove. So keeping up with the number is labor intensive. If Ents recall, Cook Forest State Park has around 111 white pines over 150 feet.
The last image speaks to the diversity in Mohawk. Attachment #5 shows a clump of big bluestem in Stafford Meadow.

Bob

  AlgonquinTree.jpg
577K View Download

  WilliamCommandTree.jpg
569K View Download

  FrankAndPetersTrees.jpg
590K View Download

  HighCanopy.jpg
593K View Download

  BigBlueStem.jpg
487K View Download

 

Continued at:

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