Well, this was the weekend that we kicked off the southeastern NY ENTS tree search initiative. The team included: Howard Stoner, Phyllis Silvers, Holly Post, and yours truly. The team will, no doubt, be expanded in the future, but the core group got the initiative started.

    We began Saturday AM with a trip to Frost Valley YMCA Camp in the central Catskills to check out the facility for a future ENTS rendezvous. On the whole, the Catskills are an austere growing environment. Surprises are proving to be few and far between. The Camp had impressive facilities. In other feature, it had some positives and some negatives. The main positives of Frost Valley are reasonable cost, excellent services, and old growth on the adjacent DEC Forest Preserve. However, there are no impressive trees around the Camp and getting to the big ones involves long drives. We will continue to evaluate the site.

    After leaving Frost Valley, we followed water drainages of two streams, the Never Sink River and Rondout Creek. Most of the forest was nondescript, with the exception of one species. The abundance of sycamores made portions of the streams very interesting. In one stretch, they totally dominated. I'm unaccustomed to seeing that. We measured sycamores from 115 to a maximum of 123.7 feet in height. Girths were modest at around 7.5 to 9 feet. I was very pleased to see the species in such abundance. We can credit Phyllis Silvers for leading us to the area. A loan tuliptree on the other side of a stream feeding the Ashokan Reservior measured 126.0 feet tall and appeared to be about 8 feet around. It is a young tree and very much an isolated specimen.

    The abundance of sycamores so far up stream suggests the need to search for the species down toward the Delaware and Hudson Rivers. There is every reason to believe that we will find lots of sycamores in the 100 to 120-foot height class and occasionally taller. Tracing the paths of the sycamore will be one of our priorities.

    This morning we said goodbye to Howard who had to return home and we then visited two famous estates on the Hudson River: the estates of Franklin D. Roosevelt estate and Cornelius Vanderbilt. Our time was limited, so we only got a taste of what both estates had to offer. We'll be going back to visit both in December. Trees measured on the FDR estate follow.

Species                 Height          Girth
Tuliptree                 115.9'          12.6'
Norway                   107.3'          13.5' ( largest I've measured)
Tuliptree                 131.3'          11.5' est
Pignut hickory         120.0'            7.8' est

     There were some large sycamores in the 110 to 115-foot height range and 9 to 12-foot girth range. We will return to measure them all. Native species observed on the FDR estate included: tuliptree, sycamore, shagbark hickory, pignut hickory, chestnut oak, n. red oak, white oak, black oak, black birch, sugar maple, red maple, American beech, white pine, hemlock, yellow birch, hop hornbeam, slippery elm, and black locust.

    The Cornelius Vanderbilt estate was the last place we visited. We had almost no time left - and what a pity. What a pity. There are many large trees there. I couldn't get to the ones I measured to take their circumferences. They were all on a steep slope and I didn't have permission to go off the paths. So accurate circumferences will have to await a return visit.

Species                     Height        Circumference
Sycamore                   133.0'             18.0' est (maybe larger)
Tuliptree                     147.0'             12.5' est
Tuliptree                     150.8'             13.0' est

    Will, Dale, et. al., I was calm and collected. Honest. I hardly uttered a sound. Most proper and reserved. I muttered things like, "jolly good show" and "way to go, old boy". Right, Phyllis and Holly? Needless to say, there will be MULTIPLE return visits!!

     Folks, the Hudson River corridor has tremendous potential. The old estates will be the first places we look, but who knows how many spots shelter splendid trees waiting for the eagle eyes of Ents to herald them. There is no telling what we will eventually document, but we definitely should pull some high Rucker indices out of the estates. The Hudson River corridor must be the site of a future ENTS rendezvous. As for now, the intrepid southern NY ENTS team will press on with the search. Bolstered by our first confirmed 150-foot hardwood in the New England - eastern NY region, the Ents spirit is high. Southeastern NY is living up to expectations.

Bob