Day at Claremont   dbhg-@comcast.net
  Dec 05, 2004 19:10 PST 
ENTS:
   Fresh from my trip to Claremont, NH today, we finally have a full Rucker index for the granite state's #1 site. The Index follows.

Species                Height      Circumference
White pine            166.1           10.3 (New England record)
White ash             125.8            8.0   (NH record)
Hemlock               125.7            8.2 (NH record)
White oak             115.2            8.1
Red maple            112.3            6.5 (NH record)
Silver maple         110.5          10.9 (NH record)
A. beech              104.9             4.7
Sugar maple         103.8            8.3
N. red oak            102.6            5.7
A. Basswood          98.3             5.1

Rucker index        116.51           7.6

The remnant silver maple flood plain forest at the edge of the Connecticut is a treat, but no cottonwoods. Although I didn't find a new white pine champ, I did confirm one more 160-footer. The tree measures (161.8, 9.2). A near by pine measures (158.2, 8.4). However, we may have found all the 160s. Based on a reassessment of the area of truly tall pines, I think the Claremont site has between 80 and 90 150-footers.

According to Dr. Rick Van de Poll, the bed rock is a partially metamorphosed lime-silicate. It is species rich. An eventual index of 119 is a virtual certainty and we may be able to nudge the Rucker index up to 120, but it will take a lot more looking.

Bob
RE:  Claremont Rucker Index   Robert Leverett
  Dec 06, 2004 07:35 PST 

John:

I would now say that the possibility of a 10-species index of 120 for
Claremont is virtually zero. With intensive searching, we'll be able to
add maybe 20 feet to a 10-species index and bring the index up to 118.5
or so. For those of you less familiar with the math, each additional
foot adds 1/10th of a point to the index when we compute a 10-species
index.

BTW, courtesy of yesterday's measurements, white ash again emerges as
the dominant tall hardwood species. It appears that within a latitude
band, white ash is our tallest northern hardwood species. Just south of
the band, tuliptree and maybe sycamore take over from ash. North of the
band I would guess sugar maple would emerge as a slight dominant for a
narrow band, but I really don't know.

At the start of all the intense searching and measuring, I had no
particular expectation about the height hierarchy of hardwood species.
White ash's emergence is a new fact for me. I wonder what the thoughts
are of others. Russ, your thoughts would be of particular interest?
Where did you see white ash in the hierarchy of hardwood heights in the
New England areas where you worked?

At present, north of the tuliptree zone, it looks like white ash
competes with hemlock for the overall #2 spot. In New England ash
presently holds the number two spot and as we continue our searches, ash
is strengthening its hold on that spot. In Pennsylvania, ash appears
subordinate to hemlock, but with increased looking, I wouldn't be
surprised if that didn't change.

A "race" of particular interest to me is that of the flood plain
species. In southern New England and eastern NY, it presently looks like
sycamore, cottonwood, and silver maple, although cottonwood is gaining
ground on sycamore. Cottonwood overwhelms both its two competing species
in terms of the total number of trees above 120 feet. As the winter
approaches and the ground freezes solid, searches of the flood plains
will increase.         

John Eichholz:

Maybe we can visit a couple of the sites along the lower Deerfield
together before the weather turns too disagreeable. It would be exciting
to locate more stands of tall ash trees to further test the hypothesis
loosely stated above.

Bob
RE: Day at Claremont   Robert Leverett
  Dec 06, 2004 07:58 PST 

Dale:

   The (166.1, 10.3) is the tree that Lee Frelich confirmed last year. I
didn't attempt to remeasure it this time. I has grown a little, though.
I could see that - perhaps 5 or 6 inches. The new 160 from yesterday is
the (161.8, 9.2).

   I was able to cover most of the property yesterday and despite
pockets of older trees, especially hemlocks, the area of super pines is
more restricted than I had hoped with would be. I'll soon delimit the
boundaries and try to get better counts and densities. The work is so
labor intensive and my visits by the nature of the property have to be
restricted. My present feeling is that Cook Forest's total number of
150s and Claremont's are comparable. I came to this conclusion yesterday
as I confirmed the diminishing heights of the pines from the center of
the tall tree area. For a time, it looked like Claremont might have
double Cook's number, but that assessment now looks overly optimistic.
Even so, Claremont will surpass Mohawk in numbers of 150s.

   I wish I could invest more time at the site, but I can't. The
politics are so sensitive. Other researchers have visited the Claremont
property from time to time, but their areas of interest and expertise
are elsewhere. Collectively, they're work will provide critically
important data to our understanding of the site's history and plant
communities. Overall, their work is the most important, but none
currently possesses the measurement skills needed to pick up the site
data of primary interest to ENTS. So, we do what we can, when we can.

Bob