ENTS,
On Mar. 14, my brother Jack Howard and I visited the Wizard of Oz Memorial Oak Grove in North Syracuse, and saw as many as 5 Hawks, including a hawk building a nest high in a White  Oak.Some of the trees in this grove at North Syracuse Junior High School are over 200 years old, and the largest Black Gum, the Anne Frank Tree, seems to have 40 or more reiterations in its crown - its crown is very wide and complex, and the tree is possibly about 240 years old. It would be good for the ENTS to look at these trees.The largest tree in this grove is the L. Frank Baum Red Oak which is about 4' dbh and 120+' tall.

On Mar. 15,
2009, Jack Howard and I visited the spectacular old growth Liverpool School Maple Grove which covers about 11 acres next to Wetzel Rd. Elementary School in the Town of Clay.

This is the most pristine and oldest forest in the
northern suburbs of Syracuse. Many of the large Sugar Maples are over 200 years
old and the canopy is an estimated 100 – 110 ft. high with the tallest trees
possibly 120 ft. tall.

We saw 2
Pileated Woodpeckers and 1 Downy Woodpecker in the grove.

Old growth pit
and mound topography is prominent and many of the trees have shaggy bark,
balding bark, spiral grain, and rugged battered crowns.

We examined the
following trees with “D” tape:

1.     Bitternut Hickory at entrance  19.3” dbh (5’ cbh)

2.     Hophornbeam entrance 19.1” dbh (5’ cbh)

3.     Sugar Maple east typical of large trees
26.2” dbh (6.9’ cbh)

4.     Sugar Maple east edge, big limb broken
off this old gnarled tree 37.7” dbh (9.9’ cbh)

5.     Beech east of biggest Sugar Maple 35.2”
dbh (9.2’ cbh)

6.     Biggest Sugar Maple possible Onondaga
County champion, biggest tree in grove, rugged, gnarled, spiral grain trunk
with shaggy bark, possibly 300-350 years old, 2 huge scars that could date to
18th century – scars possibly made by Indians to mark trails or by
1790s Military Tract surveyors ( a Military Tract witness tree stood on this
spot – this could be that tree) 51.9” dbh (13.6’ cbh!) one of the largest
forest-grown Sugar Maples in Northeast

7.     Hickory (Pignut? Mockernut? north of
giant Sugar Maple balding bark, irregular crown leaning east due to Sugar Maple
next to it 18.5” dbh (4.8’ cbh)

8.     Big Sugar Maple next to Hickory 39.4” dbh
(10.3’ cbh)

9.     Tall rugged Bitternut Hickory 27.2” dbh
(7.1’ cbh)

10.  Red Maple burls near top 24.8” dbh (6.5’
cbh)

11.  Sugar Maple next to just above 20.8” dbh
(5.4’ cbh)

12.  Beech 24.3” dbh (6.4’ cbh)

13.  Leaning Basswood 24.6” dbh (6.4’ cbh)

14.  Straight and tall Basswood 23.3” dbh
(6.1’ cbh)

15.  Basswood north of paved trail balding
bark rugged old crown 28.3” dbh (7.4’ cbh)

16.  White Oak end of paved trail by houses,
only White Oak in grove 34.8” dbh (9.1’ cbh)

17.  Black Cherry by entrance partly
open-grown 32.1” dbh (8.4’ cbh)

You can find more information on these groves in the Oct. 2008 Onondaga County Old Growth post under New York in the index.  

Tom HowardCentral NY Old Growth SurveyFriends of Wizard of Oz Memorial Oak Grove3/19/2009

Continued at:

http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/932569d99e52e170?hl=en