| #75,
#76, and more |
Robert
Leverett |
| Sep
06, 2005 06:43 PDT |
ENTS:
Sunday and Monday were numerically
intensive days for me. With
clear skies and moderate temperatures, the weather cooperated
magnificently. So, both days were spent in my forest Mecca,
Mohawk Trail
State Forest. I spent the time by myself, so I was under no
pressure to
leave before I deemed my tasks to be finished. I told myself
that if I
didn't complete my mission, I would have only myself to blame.
On Sunday I went to the Trout
Brook watershed and elsewhere along
the Cold River. I measured several tall pines in both locations
and
modeled the Hiawatha and Little Hiawatha pines. The Hiawatha
pine was
actually a remodeling effort necessitated by my growing
experience with
the RD 1000. Measurement results for the Trout Brook area are as
follows.
Sept 4th
Species Hgt Circumference Comments
WP 150.0 7.2 A
new addition to
the 150 Club, #75 for MTSF
WP 136.1 9.58 In
a new area of
MTSF. Named the Ravine Tree
WP 144.4 9.6 In
the same area
(southeastern corner of MTSF).
Tree
was named New Boy.
WP 141.9 10.2 Little
Hiawatha
modeled to 613 cubes.
Tree
was
formerly named Little Bertha.
WP 141.1 12.5 Hiawatha,
remodeled
to 855 cubes.
I
originally had it over 1000.
WP 151.1 7.01 A
new addition to
the 150 Club, #76 for MTSF.
Tree
is
in the Algonquin grove.
The new 150-footer in Trout Brook has a
nested top. My first crack
was 146 feet. Just to see if I could find a higher twig, I moved
up hill
and laterally and then noticed a twig that appeared farther into
the
crown. It was and gave me the 150 feet. I stretched to get the
150. The
measurement was legitimate, but I know that it was on the
liberal side
of the spectrum.
After finishing the modeling of
the Little Hiawatha and Hiawatha
pines, I went to the Algonquin Pines with the intention of
re-measuring
the Frank Decontie tree. Frank's tree is one of those tall
Mohawk pines
that I have had trouble with. Over the last couple of years,
I've
measured it from 3 places and gotten a range of values from
158.3 to
161.5. I've consistently discounted the high numbers, but Sunday
was
different. I first established a clearer line of site and then
took
repeated readings. I finally settled on 160.1 feet and felt
absolutely
jubilant. Could the Frank Decontie actually be a 160-footer? Why
had I
gotten lower readings most of the time? These questions will be
addressed in future e-mails.
While in the Algonquin pines, I
also added a new 150, which I have
temporarily named the Labor Day Surprise. It is just one of the
slender
pines that are crowded together. Finding a peephole to see the
top of a
particular tree is sheer luck. I headed home jubilant over the
two new
150s for the day, but only half convinced that the Frank
Decontie tree
is a 160-footer.
Sept 5th
On Monday, I decided to return to
Mohawk and take more measurements
of the Frank Decontie tree. It deserved more checking and a
resolution
to the range of values. Plus I wanted to re-measure the Joe
Norton tree
and do a little more modeling on the Jake Swamp tree. Results of
the
Monday effort follow.
Species Hgt Circumference Comments
WA 130.3 6.4 This
tree has been
attacked by Carpenter ants
WP 160.2 10.1 Yes,
it looks like
Frank is a 160-footer
Confirming measurements of
the Frank Decontie tree allows me to
report it as a 160-footer, #6 for MTSF and #7 for Massachusetts.
I
modeled the Frank tree to a lean 480 cubes. The Frank tree
becomes
slender fairly quickly.
On the way back from the
Algonquin Grove, I stopped and
re-measured the Joe Norton tree. It had grown well over the
season, as I
could clearly see. Last year’s measurements varied between
163.3 and
163.6 feet. I got 164.3 on Monday’s effort. The result is on
the liberal
side of the scale. A value like 164.1 is more probable, but the
numbers
fell where they fell.
The Joe Norton tree becomes only
the second Massachusetts tree to
join the 50 Meter Club. It is slightly possible that Saheda is
in the
club, but the last time I measured Saheda, I got 163.2 feet.
While near
the Jake and Joe trees, I took additional volume measurements of
the
Jake tree. I now have Jake at 643 cubes. I will volume model Joe
in the
future.
My next modeling assignment
is to remodel the Tecumseh and Saheda
pines. I suspect that Saheda will drop to between 775 and 800
cubes and
Tecumseh will be about 850. I hold out slim hope for 900.
So, with the ascendancy of
Frank to 160-footer status, with 2 new
150-footers, a new member for the 50 Meter Club, and good luck
with the
RD 1000, I felt that I had made up for some the neglect I had
shown
Mohawk throughout much of the summer. MTSF is my forest Mecca.
My way of
communing with its great pines is to measure them. It doesn’t
matter how
many times I do it. It is rather like saying good morning to a
friend.
You don’t do it only once.
With Mohawk's count of 150-footers
standing at 76 and a fairly
impressive new pine (New Boy) in an entirely new area of Mohawk,
I
slept through the night, guilt-free. Sadly for me, what I had
hoped
would be a 1000 cubic-foot pine, the Hiawatha tree, turns out to
be an
850-cube tree. Not too shabby, but I wanted MTSF to have at
least one
1000-cubic footer. However, with the death of Big Bertha, we
lost our
only real contender. With a circumference of 14.5 feet, Big
Bertha was
the tree.
With the stream of mind-boggling
tall tree discoveries recently
made by Ents, especially those of Will and Jess in the
unsurpassed
southern Apps, it is easy to begin to take our tall/large trees
for
granted. There seems to be plenty of them. However, I was
reminded on
Saturday of just how special our big trees are. Monica and I
visited
dear friends who own land in the Berkshires. Our friends give
much to
their land and are justly proud of it. They were anxious to
share their
forest, and the forests on adjacent properties, with us.
However, for
me, the walk was depressing. I was reminded of just how second
rate and
cutover are most private forests in Massachusetts, and how
clueless are
the landowners to the state of their woodlands. It was a Joe
Zorzin
sermon all over again. Seeing the repeatedly chopped-over
woodlands was
like looking at an ugly, open sore. The land bled and I felt its
every
twitch of pain. No tree was allowed to achieve its potential.
Land is
seen largely as a short-term economic resource. If a tree grows
beyond a
measly 14 inches in diameter, it is targeted for cutting. A
24-inch
diameter tree is a giant. The whole forest is seedy with
saplings in
your face. The abundance of green at head height is the feature
that
seems to make lumbermen to equate young, seedy re-growth
woodlands with
forest health. Our friend spoke of the diameter limit cut that
had been
proposed by a private consulting forester for another property
he owned.
Our friend exhibited no understanding of the high grade nature
of
diameter limit cuts.
The young and bushy look is a ridiculous
criterion for judging
forest health, but it is one that lumbermen universally seem to
use.
Incidentally, forest health will be a topic addressed in the
upcoming
Forest Summit Lecture Series at Holyoke Community College during
the Oct
13-14 period.
By contrast, my time walking among
the great pines of MTSF was
sheer bliss. The trees projected their individual health,
vitality, and
power into the surrounding space – tree auras, I guess. As I
drank
thirstily of the forest elixir created by the great pines, I was
once
again humbled and I felt most grateful. I knew why Mohawk Trail
State
Forest is such a gem, such a state treasure, if not a national
one. And
if I needed any additional assurances of Mohawk’s value, there
was the
silent memorial to Jani A. Leverett, my dear deceased wife, that
DCR so
graciously established in May 2004 and formally dedicated in
October of
2004., The memorial dedicates and sanctifies the surrounding
Cherokee-Choctaw pines and reminds us of what forests can be if
we only
let them.
I was also reminded of how
important it is for private citizens and
friends groups to stay involved with their forests and to
partner with
state agencies, which often desperately need our help. I left
Mohawk
also feeling grateful to DCR.
Bob
Robert T. Leverett
Cofounder, Eastern Native Tree Society
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