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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
Continued
at:
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/aff73f159fa52895?hl=en
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