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TOPIC: Maybe 170, maybe not
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/736107a6324a3fe7?hl=en
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Date: Fri, Jun 13 2008 6:24 pm
From: dbhguru@comcast.net


ENTS,

Yesterday Monica and I went to MTSF, our forest Mecca. I hadn't been there in months and was chomping at the bits to see the Jake Swamp white pine and remeasure it. With full foliage I can't use my TruPulse hypsometers to get distance, but got good results with my Bushnell and Nikon lasers and could use the TruPulses for angles. From my vantage point, both lasers registered 72 yards to the terminal leader. I measured the distance to the base with a tape measure. I then located the lowest point of the trunk identified as continuation of vertically oriented wood as opposed to trunk/root flare. I did the same at mid-slope. I was trying to identify the bottom of the trunk irrespective of the slope of the land. Will Blozan and Jess employed that method with trees in Tsuga Search.

Well, if we take the mid-slope point, we get 169.1 feet and if the lower slope position, 170.1 feet. Whata bout my pre-season 168.5-foot determination. The new grow appears to be about a foot at this point. But I used the TruPulse for that determination and it can shoot a little short at long distances - or won't return bounces from a small tip of a twig or leader against a background of blue. I am inclined to discount the pre-season 168.5-foot measurement and go with prior measurements as indicative of Jake's pre-season height.

Is Jake a legitimate 170-footer or an honorary 170-footer? What about the verticality issue? In taking girths and heights, should we consider the base of the tree to be the lowest point of verticality of the trunk?

Regardless, for honorary considerations, Jake is the only 170-footer in New England. That's pretty significant in my book and I'm sure for other Ents and big tree aficionados. The challenge for me is going to be to get the Massachusetts DCR to give a damn. A few folks in DCR may. I'd like to believe that. My job will be to seek them out and let them know.

Is Jake through growing for the season? No, probably not.

Bob