| Mohawk
Magic |
dbhg-@comcast.net |
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Mar
21, 2004 16:33 PST |
ENTS:
Today mathematician John Eichholz and I broke new ground in
MTSF, our forest Mecca. We started the day by tackling a very
tough tree and we tackled it with dogged determination, I might
add. Our objective was to get the most accurate measurement to
date for the Jani Tree - that beautiful pine named in honor of
my dear departed wife. The Jani Tree is at the bottom of a steep
slope and to see both the crown and base from the same point
presents some measuring challenges. Because of the adjacent
pines, some really pesky black birches, and just general forest
clutter, you actually must be almost level with the base or
slightly below it to concurrently get good views of both the
crown and base. Locations that we've used in the past near eye
level with the base have produced height measurements in the 143
to 146-foot range. That's too broad for our purposes. True, the
most recent measurements have been between 144 and 145 feet, but
there had remained a substantial doubt that I was hitting the
absolute top. The big problem is that the tree has a very broad
crown and long side branches, so that even though the crown is
generally visible, finding the absolute top from near eye-level
locations was doubtful. So today John and I tackled the problem
by breaking the tree up into two large sections identified by a
conspicuous limb at the division point. We could work from the
crown down to the limb from one location and the limb to the
ground from another. Working together and checking our
mrasurements repeatedly, we succeeded to each's satisfaction. We
were elated when the height of Jani's Tree came out to be 150.2
feet! Yes, another joins the 150 Club!
The Jani Tree's girth is a solid 10.6 feet
when taken at a carefully chosen mid-slope spot. The tree's age
is about 140 years. Maybe a little more. Well, we have finally
done justice to Jani's tree.
What follows is the full list of today's
recorded measurements and there are a few surprises with the
promise of more to come. Before listing the results, I should
say that we began measuring in a new spot in Mohawk, which we
have dubbed the Seneca Grove. It will be the location of the
Edna Gordon Tree - a Seneca Grandmother who lives in western New
York and a protector of the Earth. Edna will be recognized in a
ceremony on May 15th. Now to the list.
Tree Grove Height Girth
Cabin #2 Pocumtuck 142.5 10.3
Mirror Tree Trees of
Peace 150.0 10.5
Jani's Tree Cherokee-Choctaw 150.2 10.6
Charles Yow Tree Cherokee-Choctaw 147.5 8.6
Seneca #1 Seneca
Grove 146.7 8.2
Seneca #2 Seneca
Grove 147.0 8.1
Seneca #3 Seneca
Grove 148.2 7.7
(Edna's Tree)
NRO #1 Seneca
Grove 110.9 6.4
NRO #2 Seneca
Grove 108.8 8.1
We shot about 10 other trees, but didn't record them.
I found it embarrassing that I had
previously paid almost no attention to the trees in the new
Seneca Grove. It just doesn't show up as promising from my usual
vantage point, but today something told me to go into it and
check it out more closely. It has a cluster of pines in the 140
- 148-foot height range and a number of competing hardwoods in
the 100 to 112-foot range. It has a lot of promise and we can
establish clear boundaries for the area. Its pines are young and
vigorous and will add several 150s over the next few years.
The two new 150s we confirmed today brings
Mohawk's total to 47. BTW, that total is beyond my wildest
dreams and there are half a dozen trees that will make it into
the prestigious 150 Club within 2 to 3 years. Remembering that
the Mohawk pines are still relatively young trees with plenty of
growing left to do, in 10 years there could be 75 to 80 trees in
the club with one or two 170-footers.
The Mohawk pines have immense ecological,
research, aesthetic, and cultural value. But they also have
timber value. We're going continue dealing directly with the
foresters to promote the non-timber values instead of relying on
the environmental community to build general awareness of the
non-timber values. At the research level, forestry has a
legitimate interest in knowing what white pines can do when left
to grow in good growing conditions into the 150 to 175-year age
range. Our current data clearly shows that the great whites of
Mohawk continue growing quite well into ages older than what
would be allowed on private property. Incidentally, the average
diameter of the 7 great whites that we measured to day is 35
inches and all these trees have a lot of growing left to do
despite their ages of between 135 to 150 years. I wonder what
the timber community at large would have been saying about these
trees had they judged their continued growth potential at say 60
years? Would they have believed that the trees would still be
growing well at double that age? I suspect many would not.
My belief is that the Mohawk pines are just
now entering their prime and will stay in it for 25 to 50 more
years, after which time the older ones will go down hill. Left
completely alone, of course the stands will continue to self
thin, with the hardiest trees surviving and continuing to slowly
add girth and a little height. A few trees would reach diameters
of 44 to as much as 50 inches. The tallest would be in the 165
to 175-foot range (the Jake Swamp tree is 163.5 feet now). The
mature trees would range from 1,500 to 3,500 board feet volume.
Are their existing stands that suggest where the Mohawk pines
are headed? You bet. Cook Forest and Hearts Content and perhaps
Anders Run, PA.
Bob
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| Re:
Mohawk Magic |
greentreedoctor |
|
Mar
21, 2004 16:58 PST |
Jani's
Tree came out to be 150.2 feet! Yes, another joins the 150 Club!
Congratulations! Jani would be proud!
RC |
| RE:
Mohawk Magic |
Robert
Leverett |
|
Mar
22, 2004 10:43 PST |
Gary:
Indeed, it was a wonderful day. I even enjoyed floundering
around in
the snow, and flounder I did. John Eichholz and I discussed the
iteration process at Mohawk and how far to take it and why.
Colby and I
have off the list discussions of the value of many iterations.
It isn't
clear if the effort required to take the iteration process out
beyond 3
or 4 is justified.
Be that as it
may, we hope to take Mohawk to 25 this summer, but
probably not further. I'm not sure that continued iterations
would add
that much understanding to what we already have. We know that
the white
pine stands and the relative dense concentrations of sugar
maple, white
ash, northern red oak, and hemlock will serve to keep the index
high
through many iterations, while the truly tall members of the
other
species will fade.
The mix in Mohawk of mature second-growth forests with their
concentrations of pioneer species like white pine and bigtooth
aspen,
the wide distribution of settler species like sugar maple and
hemlock
among areas of both old growth and mature second growth, the
intermediate species like northern red oak that are widely
spread, and
the species like black cherry that are thinly distributed make
for
interesting discussion about the distribution of tree ages and
dimensions and what they tell us about the growing conditions at
across
Mohawk. The distributions put us into a position to make
predictions and
allow us to be legitimately surprised when something bucks the
trend.
From
the 21 iterations of the Rucker index, we present the
following distribution with relative confidence.
Species Age
Range Avg age
White pine 100
- 175 135
White ash 80
- 220 120
Sugar maple 80
- 320 150
Hemlock 150
- 350 180
N. red oak 90
- 140 120
A. beech 130
- 200 150
B. nut hickory 70
- 130 95
Bigtooth aspen 70 - 130 95
A. basswood 100-140 120
Red maple 90
- 200 135
The
average age of these participants is 131 years. The
average may be understated by a year or two, but not more. The
comparable average for Ice Glen is around 150 years and 190 to
200 for
Bullard Woods. Monroe State Forest is around 150 years.
Bob
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