Trout brook, MTSF   John Eichholz
  Mar 27/28, 2004 18:42 PST 

Bob, et. al.:

Today I started exploring in the Trout brook basin, across Route 2 from
the Todd-Clark range. I came across some good growing regions and a new
species for me, red spruce. The spruce was in a pure stand near where
Trout brook forks. The pine was near the highway, and the whole stand
looks very promising and quite young. It was nice to find another black
cherry over 110'. Here is a list:

species height CBH
Black Cherry 111.8 4.4
Black Cherry 108.1 4.1
Black Cherry 106.2 3.9
Black Cherry 104.3 4.5
Black Cherry 104.1 6.6
Black Cherry 102.3 3.5
Eastern Hemlock 122.9
Eastern Hemlock 114.0
Norway spruce 117.1'.
Norway Spruce 115.1 4.8
Norway Spruce 97.3 3.8
White Ash 137.8 7.9
White Ash 126.0 7.8
White Pine 144.2 8
Yellow Birch 89.2 3.8

John
Trout brook   John Eichholz
  Apr 02, 2004 14:45 PST 

Bob, Gary, John:

I have been doing some research on tip mapping as a way to test and
correlate measurements. I went out to Trout brook to remeasure the tall
white pine there. I had only taken one, quick reading last week, as I
was eager to get up the drainage. From above the tree, it was apparent
there was a nested top, with at least four distinct tips. I eliminated
one as low, then investigated the other three. The results are below.
I think it is fair to say these results support our ability to map
individual tips, and to correlate "one yard" differences with tip areas.

I also looked into the interpoint program that Gary described. I have
the executable loaded and am playing around with his data and his data
with varying perturbations applied to it. I would like to see if it is
useful for mapping widely spaced trees using a rangefinder.

The Trout brook lower basin has a small but fast growing grove of pines
and some decent hemlock as well, with a light understory of red maple
and yellow birch. This grove lies just above route 2, adjacent to Trout
brook. Above there, lies a more typical hardwood forest for MTSF. I
measured several white pine above 140', including one above 150'. The
hemlocks I found are mostly between 100' and 110' tall. Here is today's
list:

species hgt CBH
White Pine 150.7 8.2
White Pine 145.8 7.1
White Pine 141.4 5.9
White Pine 141.2 9.4
E. Hemlock 110.7 5.6

and the tip readings:

tr_k DATE DCROWN DBASE ACROWN ABASE ADD height tip
208 3/27/2004 60 36 56.6 -3.2 0 144.24 ?
208 4/2/2004 55 33 53.6 10 0.7 150.69 1
208 4/2/2004 64 52 35.6 14.2 0.9 150.93 1
208 4/2/2004 63 52 35.8 14 0.9 149.19 4
208 4/2/2004 63 49 36.4 14.4 0.9 149.61 4
208 4/2/2004 61 47 38.4 14.4 0.9 149.63 4
208 4/2/2004 60 47 38.4 14.4 0.9 147.77 2
208 4/2/2004 57 41 43 14.6 0.9 148.52 2

(The column headings probably don't line up.)

John
John Strikes Again   Robert Leverett
  May 05, 2004 09:51 PDT 

ENTS:

   Super-Ent John Eichholz recently struck again when he confirmed a
122-foot Norway spruce in the Trout Brook section of MTSF. John's tree
is second tallest of its species we've measured in Massachusetts.

   The distribution of the number of species by height class in Mohawk
is now as follows. The list includes non-native as well as native
species.

Hgt     No.

160 1
150 1
140 2
130 6
120 12
110 19
100 23
90 24

   We have 5 trees over 160, 61 trees over 150, and 187 over 140. We
haven't gotten all over 140 yet. That number should be around 200, if
not slightly more.

Bob
Re: John Strikes Again   John Eichholz
  May 08, 2004 08:16 PDT 
Bob:

Super-Ent? I think I'll leave that title for Will, Lee, yourself, or
many of the others who have contributed so much.

For the record, the Norway spruce stand is a small plantation growing in
one of MTSF's high growth areas. The area is a bench below a steep
slope, and the tallest one is growing right near running water. Near it
grows a 118' one and one at 106', 2.7' cbh (123 h/d ratio). There are
several at least in the one-teens. You had said the stand dates from
the CCC days, which seems right, and it is growing very well. The
eventual height limit of Norway spruce in this stand could very well
exceed 130'. Who knows? We'll just have to wait and see.

John

 
New Record Norway Spruce   dbhg-@comcast.net
  Sep 11, 2004 15:18 PDT 
ENTS:
   Today John Sternala and I canvassed the Trout Brook area of Mohawk Trail State Forest and we didn't come away empty handed. A hemlock measuring 125.2 feet in height and 7.9 feet around started us off on the right foot. But we spent most of our time in an old Norway Spruce plantation, one that I had visited several times in the past. My best previous height measurement was slightly over 118 feet. John Eichholtz subsequently set the Mohawk record with a 122.2 ft tall, 4.1 ft around Norway. The state record was a 123.8-footer in Egremont, MA. Well, not any more. Today we measured to splendid Norways and a white pine:
    Species                               Height       Circumference
     Norway Spruce                  121.1               5.8
     Norway Spruce                  126.2               5.7 (new state champ)
     White Pine                        141.2              10.3

Bob
Re: New Record Norway Spruce   John Eichholz
  Sep 12, 2004 20:37 PDT 

Dale, Bob:

As I remember the stand, 5'+ on circumference is actually rather high
for the stand. I don't remember the spacing, but the stand is now quite
dense and pure Norway Spruce. It is on a wide bench about 50' above
Trout Brook, so it is a flat site, and with a steep rocky face above it.
There are a couple of brooks that meander through the stand. The tallest
trees I measured were right beside one of these brooks. Bob, didn't you
think the Norway Spruce stands in MTSF were CCC plantings from the 1930's?

There is a really nice grouping of White Pine in the same general area,
which is fairly far up the brook. I found two over 140' when I looked:
One at 145.6'h, 11.4'cbh, another at 144.3'h, 9.2'cbh. Also, 137.3'h,
11.7'cbh. This little stand is one of the most charming in MTSF in my
opinion, perhaps because of the rugged terrain and the apparent age of
the trees. Stone walls intersect it, there are rocky outcrops nearby,
and Trout Brook rushes by below. Being right off the road which climbs
beside Trout Brook and so close to the spruce plantation, it must be an
interesting story why these trees were saved...

John
Trout Brook    john-@bcn.net
   Nov 02, 2004 15:45 PST 
Bob, Will, Jess:

After my walk today in the Trout Brook basin I would agree. The noble ash reaches a pinnacle of sorts in there.

As I entered the basin I rechecked the lower pine area. The 151.4'h x 8.1'c one is the tallest found so far but there is a 148' and a couple over 140' also. These are young pines growing in an extremely favorable site. Barring misfortune, the tallest one should exceed 160' in the next decade or two.

Travelling upstream, a tall 121.5' basswood caught my eye. This led me to cross the stream and enter an area I had ignored before, but which turned out to be a classic example of a high growth boulder field, with moss and ferns covering the boulders and fallen logs. It reminds me more of Dunbar Brook than the boulder field at the base of Todd mountain, but the average age of trees is lower. The canopy was almost entirely hardwoods, dominated by white ash, yellow birch and black birch, with some beech, sugar maple and red maple.   

On the slope, I measured an American Beech to 118.8', which surprised me. Beech in that height class are rare in MTSF. I next measured a red maple to 111.7' and another very attractive beech to 105.7'

This was followed by a series of the nicest white ash I have encountered. They are growing on a bench above the brook, at the base of the boulder field. The bench is wide enough to have good soil depth and long enough to fit lots of trees. I measured three ash over 130' and there are many over 120' Most of them are young, with circumferences in the 4' to 6' range, although there are several in the 7' to 8' range.

Across the brook I measured a hemlock to 120.7' Farther upstream was a hemlock to 126.1', which I think has been reported before. I also found a beautiful, perfectly formed hemlock growing in a thick patch of hemlock on the slope above the brook.

This led me to a grove of ash trees I have had my eye on. They are growing thickly in a bouldery cove above the brook and are hard to measure. I measured one to 133.7', and another nearby to 126.8'. I was then surprised by a black birch at 109.3'. The capstone of the day followed, a white ash that climbed to 142.4' with a circumference of 8.0'.

The Trout brook basin now has three state height champions (Norway spruce, black cherry and yellow birch) a runner up (sugar maple), white pine above 150', white ash above 140', sugar maple above 130', and a great depth of other species. Missing from the canopy but present elsewhere in MTSF are bitternut hickory and bigtooth aspen. Red oak is present, but not to great heights.  My records show a Rucker index of 126.5 in an area that does not exceed 150 acres. What else is in there?, one has to wonder. 

Top ten list I am aware of:

White pine      151.5'
White ash       142.4'
Sugar maple     132.0'
Norway Spruce   127'+
Eastern hemlock 126.1'
Black cherry    125'
Am. basswood    121.5'
Am. Beech       118.8'
Red maple       111.7' (should go higher)
Black birch     109.3'

Rucker index    126.5

Today's list:

WP 140.0' 9.4'c
WP 151.5' 8.1'c
BW 121.5' 4.9'c (one of a triple)
AB 118.8' 7.3'c
AB 105.7' 6.8'c
RM 111.7' 6.4'c
WA 111.9'       skinny
WA 123.4'
WA 119.2'
WA 134.0' 6.3'c
WA 132.6' 7.2'c
WA 127.3' 4.5'c
WA 126.2'       skinny
WA 126.2'       fat
WA 131.6' 5.1'c
WA 133.7' 7.0'c
WA 126.8'
WA 142.4' 8.0'c
EH 120.7' 7.1'c
EH 126.1' 6.7'c
EH 123.9' 7.0'c
BB 105.2'
BB 109.3' 5.0'c


That was the most fun I have had tree hunting in many moons.

John
Re: The noble ash tree   dbhg-@comcast.net
  Nov 02, 2004 18:50 PST 
John:
    Totally awesome! WAY COOL! Good job. Yes, Trout Brook may we have the greatest potential of all the areas of MTSF. There are a few bigtooths farther up the stream and some down stream on the other side. I measured one to about 108 feet a couple of years ago. I think we can go 110 or 112. Also, I'm sure we can find a few bitternuts - maybe on the other side of Trout Brook.
    The Rucker index of an area of about 125 acres as I trace in on the map may reach 127 with a couple of years. And it is young stuff. If we're going to find a 150-foot white ash in New England within the next decade, it may well be in Trout Brook.
   I'm looking at November 20th or 21st to begin another sweep of Trout Brook. Are you available? If you send me the angle measures and distances for the trees, I'll pump them into the database and then send you a spreadsheet of all the trees we have for Trout Brook.
    In terms of the tree competition, we have 13 white ash trees in MTSF above 140 feet. That'as tops in the Northeast. The white ash rules.
Bob
Rethinking application of the Rucker Index   Robert Leverett
  Nov 03, 2004 06:00 PST 
ENTS:

    Will Blozan's and John Eichholz'a recent confirmations of more
exceptional trees in the Trout Brook region of Mohawk Trail State Forest
suggests the need to begin the process of breaking down our large,
mainly political units, such as national parks, state forests,
conservation properties etc. into sub-sites that are delineated more
through ecologically derived criteria than convenient political ones. We
all knew this was coming, but I do believe that the time has arrived.

   The Trout Brook cove in MTSF includes about 125 acres of prime
growing habitat that includes similar geology, climate etc. I think Lee
Frelich would describe much of the forest type in Trout Brook as mature,
even-aged, grading into old growth on the steep upper slopes. In
addition most of the forest on the lower slopes has a fairly common
human disturbance history. It seems reasonable that Trout Brook should
have its own Rucker index.

    One undeniable fact is that the Trout Brook area is very rich for
growing trees. The Rucker index for a 125-acre Trout Brook sub-site now
stands at 127.5 and can likely go just a little higher. In 20 or 30
years, the index will climb to between 129 and 130, barring loss of
species.

    On the north side of route #2, the Todd-Clark ridge gives rise to a
200-acre swath of forest that has a Rucker index of around 132. The area
has swaths of older forest and probably represents climax vegetative
development in terms of tree height growth for any area in
Massachusetts. The area has the same geology and climate. It too
logically should have its own Rucker index.

    As we expand the geographical area, naturally we increase the Rucker
index, but it is interesting to follow how well the hot spots like Trout
Brook and Clark ridge fair, i.e. to assess their contributions. With the
latest numbers cranked in, MTSF's Rucker index still stands at 134.5,
courtesy of this past weekends measurement of the Jake tree. So, going
from 200 acres to 6770 yields an increase of only 2.5 points with
respect to the Clark ridge site. Darned impressive.

    Expanding to include significantly larger, more diverse areas that
would eliminate the dominance of a local geology, topography, climate,
and forest history and then telescoping down to small regions to
investigate the patterns will be grist for the cold days of winter spent
indoors at my computer. However, this I can already see. A few small,
contiguous, compact areas will continue to account for most of the tall
tree contributions. I would have once thought that the more searching I
did the more spread out the locations of each of the champions would be.
I never actually expected that 2 or 3 compact areas would continue to
contribute so much to the Rucker index calculations.

   It will take a lot more roaming around and sampling to adequately
validate this pattern, but I can't think of anything I'd rather be
doing. So many trees, so little time ......

Bob
          

Robert T. Leverett
Cofounder, Eastern Native Tree Society
Trout Brook   dbhg-@comcast.net
  Nov 04, 2004 18:56 PST 
ENTS:
   The flurry of e-mails about the Rucker index being applied to sub-sites of larger sites has a perfect test case in the Trout Brook cove of MTSF. So far building the Rucker index for Trout Book has been a real cooperative ENTS effort. Here is a summary of the latest numbers.


Species             Height            Measurer            Comments
White pine          151.9             Bob Leverett     (John Eichholz got 151.4)
White ash           142.4            John Eichholz    
Sugar maple       132.0           Will Blozan
Hemlock             126.1           John Eichholz
   Black cherry       125.4          Will Blozan          State record
   Red maple          121.8          Will Blozan
   A. basswood      121.5           John Eichholz      2nd tallest in state
   A. beech             118.8          John Eichholz
   Bitternut H.          118.3         Bob Leverett
   Black birch           111.7        John Eichholz
   Rucker index = 127.0 for native species


==============================================
   Other species
   Norway spruce     127.1       Bob Leverett         State record
   Bigtooth aspen      107.4       Bob Leverett
   N. red oak             105.8      Bob Leverett
   Yellow birch           102.9      Will Blozan           State record


   The potential for Trout Brook may exceed all other Mohawk sites including the incomparable Todd-Clark ridge, north side.
   Trout Brook has a number of hemlocks in the 120+ class and similarly with sugar maples. The site is deep in tall white ash trees, with two over 140. To be truly complete, we have to record some heights for white birch, hop hornbeam, and higher up on Hawks Mtn we can bag a red spruce or two. It will be fun to develop very complete stats for Trout Brook. It is a compact enough area to do a good job. We can extend the area of tall tree habitat to about 180 acres.
Bob
More Trout Brook   dbhg-@comcast.net
  Nov 05, 2004 04:19 PST 
ENTS:

    To take the Trout Brook sub-site a step further, the watershed of Trout Brook and its sister stream form a cove that opens to the northeast. Elevations range from 1970 down to 590 feet for a range of 1380 feet. The entire watershed encompasses 1192 acres and the linear path of the divide is 7.1 miles. Within the 1192 acres, there are around 50 to 60 of old growth - maybe slightly more. There is also about 180 acres of highly productive forest. The Rucker index stands at 127.6 for all species and 127.0 for native species. The forest is relatively young and has 25 to as much as 50 years of good growing left to do before mortality, crown damge, etc. begins to reverse the overall upward develoment of its vertical structure. We have an ideal forest laboratory with clear boundaries to observe the growth of sixteen or seventeen species.
    I think that hemlock and white pine have the greatest unrealized potential. Hemlock will eventually surpass 130 feet and white pine will reach 160. Can white ash make 150? That's the big question.

Bob
More Trout Brook Goodies   dbhg-@comcast.net
  Nov 07, 2004 17:13 PST 
Will, John Eichholz, Dale, et al:

   Today, John Knuerr and I remeasured the white ash that I'd been touting as a 140-footer, but got numbers from 139 to 141. We went well up the ridge until the angle to the crown was only 17 degrees. We could see the highest branches. Both of us shot the tree and got consistent results. The tree is 140.2 feet tall. It just makes the club. I also found a new white ash at 134.2 x 8.0.

   Later I went to the other side of Trout Brook and checked on Big Bertha's carcus. Yes, she croaked. Two trees in her vicinity are doing well though. The first is 145.6 x 10.2 and the second is 140.3 x 12.1. Yes, the second pine is huge. I also got a red oak ast 110.8 x 6.1. That's the best I've done fro oak in the Trout Brook drainage. So far the stats for Trout Brook are:

    1. Tallest tree: WP 151.9 x 8.2
    2. Tallest hardwood: WA 142.4 x 8.0
    3. # species breaking height thresholds:
                
             Criteria                       Number
              >=100                          14
              >=120                            8
              >=130                            3
              >=140                            2
              >=150                            1

      4. # state records: 2   ( NS and YB)
      5. Rucker index: 127.0 for native species, 127.6 for all species
      
    There is a lot of searching left to do.e can beat the current record for northern red oak. Somewhere in the upper cove there will be a 100-foot red spruce.

Bob