ENTS,

            Today Monica and I visited our forest Mecca Mohawk Trail State Forest , Charlemont , MA . I was low on energy, so my objective was modest – to visit the big Hiawatha Pine and re-measure it. Hiawatha is one of three 12-ft girth pines located in the Trout Brook section of Mohawk, not far from the skeleton of Big Bertha, the largest pine that once grew there. Big Bertha made it to a whopping 14.6 feet around and 148 feet in height, but alas, Bertha passed on.

            The climb up to Hiawatha is only about 200 feet above the mouth of Trout Brook. The sounds of Route #2 can still be heaard, but the pine grows in an area of Mohawk that hardly ever sees a human – a blessing considering the ravaging that several past generations of humans did to the forest in Trout Brook cove. However, that is another story.

            Well, I am pleased to report the Hiawatha is doing fine. The big pine now measures 12.6 feet in circumference based on 4 measurements (12.1 and 13.1 for uphill and downhill girths and 12.8, and 12.4 for the mid-slope girths). Hiawatha is a solid 141.6 feet tall and based on my modeling has 715 cubic feet of trunk volume, which might be slightly conservative.

            Measuring Hiawatha officially kicks off the 2009 season in which I hope to update the Rucker index of Mohawk. It currently stands at 136.0, stays above 130 for 4 iterations, and above 120 for 20. This rather extraordinary performance is attributable to our perseverance in hunting down all the tall trees in Mohawk over the high growth area of about 2,000 acres of Mohawk’s 6,500.

            My Mohawk excursion brings me to a topic that I think needs discussing. We now show 339 members on the ENTS list. That number reflects continued growth, but most members are silent – not active participants in any way. Others are convivial and help keep the chatter going, and that’s fine, but what we’re not making progress on is increasing the group of hardcore measurers who as part of a team effort can build a truly useful scientific database. We've made a good start, but aren't there yet. The problem is that w e have no real representation in many eastern states and as a consequence there are large holes in our geographical coverage. Places like Mohawk Trail State Forest here in western MA, Cook Forest State Park in PA, the Great Smoky Mountains NP in TN-NC, Congaree NP in SC, and an area of the mountains of SC have been heavily measured. Each of the se sites has a local champion that sees to a continuous update of information, but we need far more coverage and in particular more input from the Mid-west and the central Atlantic states.

            We do have areas to crow about. The Pennsylvania A-Team has performed outstandingly. We owe much to them. Of course Will Blozan in NC is a one-man Army as is Jess Riddle when he can break away from the rigors of his graduate school studies. Fortunately, we do have some talent now in Ohio and West Virginia and hopefully other gaps in our  coverage will be gradually filled. It just seems like it is taking forever to get there.

            To give everyone a shot of measuring steroids, I’ve updated the list of Rucker height indices that I originally did in 2006. I’ve done my best. It is attached. The RHI cutoff in this version is 110. I admit that number  is arbitrary, but tall tree sites in the 100 and under class are a dime a dozen. I don’t go higher than 110 to give the most northern of our eastern states a chance for a few entries. Maybe some of you can make an argument for a different cutoff. Also, will those of you who form the measuring team take a look at the list and see if I’ve missed any sites or posted wrong indices? Thanks.

            As an appeal to those who are blessed (cursed) with the measuring gene, if you’re just measuring girths, it is time to graduate to the next level. We need heights as well as girths. Buy a Nikon Forestry 550, join the A-Team, and help us fill in the gaps.

             As a final comment, I learned a few days ago that our distinguished president Will Blozan will be joining the most elite of the world’s elite tree measurers in July to map out the canopy of one of the tallest Giant Sequoias on the planet – a 311-ft monster. Will Blozan will be joining Drs. Steve Sillett , Bob Van Pelt, and other world class tree climbing research scientists in what must be a one of the greatest tree research projects. Will’s participation in the project is another example of the power and reach of ENTS – something for all of us to be justly proud. Maybe my elitist side is showing, but we never intended ENTS to be a club of big tree hobby types popping around the countryside measuring a tree here or there. The work we are meant to accomplish is much more serious stuff as Will’s acceptance on this project amply illustrates. As another example, I’d like to think that the dendromorphometry book that is presently being written by Lee Frelich, Don Bragg, Bob Van Pelt, Will Blozan , and myself demonstrates our serious side . I presently am up to 33,000 words on the draft. However, collecting serious tall tree-large tree site data by the members of the A-Team and keeping updated lists takes a back seat to nothing . Folks, let’s please make a renewed effort to update our current RHI master list and add more sites - lots more sites. Thanks in advance. Will, would you like to add anything to my call for a renewed measuring effort ? Ed? Lee? Others?        

Bob