ENTS,

about two years ago I posted some tree measurements for Haven Hill Natural Area in Michigan.  In that post I mentioned finding a possible Shumard oak as well as a swamp cottonwood.  Both of those identifications were wrong!  The tree I thought was a Shumard oak especially bothered me because I had pictures of it and the more I looked at them the less I thought they looked like Shumard oak.  The bark especially bothered me.  It looked more like that of a white oak rather than any red oak but I could only find leaves of red oak, all of which turned out to be northern red oak, on the forest floor.  I finally went back to this site when the leaves were on the trees and brought my binoculars.  When I looked up it was obvious as a heart attack...it was a bur oak!  Wow, that felt both awful and great.  Awful because I had been traveling all over the country collecting acorns from and photographing bur oaks.  Great because I finally knew the correct identity of
 this tree.  When I first saw this tree I mentioned that I had rarely seen trees in Michigan with such a nice buttress, but since that time I've seen quite a few...it's amazing what happens when you open your eyes.  After properly identifying this tree I walked along and began looking for other things that I may have overlooked.  I started noticing lots of basswoods.  Suddenly they were everywhere.  Then I noticed that their leaves looked an awful lot like that swamp cottonwood that I'd previously identified.  I had to check this tree out now that the leaves were on.  When I arrived at this tree it wasn't a swamp cottonwood at all.  It was a willow and the leaves that I had found belonged to several basswood trees nearby.  Ugh!  Twice I had made the mistake of associating leaves of one tree species with the trunk of another.  Embarrassing as this is, it has certainly taught me a good lesson.  One that I won't soon forget.
     Last month during Christmas vacation I revisited this site as well as Kensington Metropark which is right out my parents backdoor.  I had hoped to make proper ENTS measurements, but due to the snowstorm and the colder temps I didn't feel like spending lots of time standing and measuring without my gloves on (I am still painfully slow at this) so I just shot straight up with the laser.  I have made some comparisons shooting straight up vs the ENTS method and I've so far always been within a foot.  I thought I'd report on the measurements that I do have for these two parks and compare them to the measurements that Will Blozan made for Lower Huron Metropark.  Ofcourse Will's measurements are proper ENTS measurements and mine are not.  Naturally I will eventually measure these trees properly but these will have to do for now.
     I also wanted to mention that all three of these sites are within the Huron River Watershed of southeastern Michigan.  This watershed is just over 900 square miles in area...I think it is 903.  Of the watersheds in southern Michigan, this one has more public land than any other.  There are 20 parks or preserves of over a thousand acres and Haven Hill Natural Area (as a part of Highland State Recreation Area, 5,903 acres), Kensington Metropolitan Park (4,481 acres) and Lower Huron Metropark (1,258 acres) are three of them.  About 12 percent of the Huron River Watershed is public property which is great in comparison to other watersheds in this densely populated region.

Haven Hill
1 Red Maple   7.63' x 127.5'
2 White Ash   4.97' x 126'
3 Tuliptree   123'
4 Bitternut   4.59' x 120'
5 Red Oak   9.39' x 118.5'
6 Black Cherry   115.5'
7 Beech   7.27' x 114'
8 Basswood   114'
9 Bur Oak   9.24' x 112.5'
10 White Oak   9.78' x 108'
mean w/Ash = 117.90' (White Ash was dead)

Kensington
1 Pignut   7.31' x 123'
2 Cottonwood   118.5'
3 Red Oak   10.43' x 114'
4 Red Maple   8.43 x 112.5'
5 Black Cherry   5.06' x 111'
6 Black Walnut   7.59' x 109.5'
7 Bitternut   5.39' x 109.5'
8 Ash   8.48' x 106.5'
9 Black Oak   7.98' x 106.5'
10 White Oak   7.07' x 106.5'
11 Shagbark Hickory   6.64' x 102'
mean w/Ash = 111.75' (all ashes dead)
mean w/out Ash = 111.30'

Lower Huron (Will's measurements)
1 Cottonwood   12.58' x 131.2'
2 Sycamore   10.83' x 123.9'
3 Tuliptree   8.67' x 120.5'
4 Red Oak   8.67' x 118.5'
5 Bur Oak   11.92' x 117'
6 Red Elm   9.08' x 114'
7 Black Walnut   5.17' x 113.6'
8 Silver Maple   10.00' x 110.2'
9 Green Ash   11.92' x 110'
10 Hackberry   8.08' x 105.5'
11 Bitternut   7.50' x 102.1'
RI10 w/Ash = 116.44' (Green Ash was dead)
RI10 w/out Ash = 115.65'

     Will, if any of your measurements that I am reposting are incorrect I hope you will correct me.

     Kensington is generally the driest of the three parks and much of Lower Huron is within the Huron River floodplain.  The tallest tree species at each park generally reflect this.  I'm sure the species and numbers will change over time.  For example, I only spent about an hour measuring some cottonwoods in Kensington and there are probably taller ones in the park.  I also didn't measure a single shagbark hickory at Haven Hill and I'm sure there are several over 108' in height.  I didn't use RI10 for my measurements because they are not our standard SIN/SIN measurements.
     There may be some non-native species which could make these lists.  In Proud Lake Recreation Area just upstream from Kensington there are several planted Norway Spruces that may be in the top ten for that park.  Do I include them?  In Kensington and other parks there are Black Locusts that could break into the top ten.  These are native to the eastern US but not Michigan.  Do I include them?  White Pine is native to Michigan but not Kensington (it has been planted) or many other parks in southern Michigan.  Do I include them?  Where should I draw the line here?

Doug