Guys,

I was in Cashiers, NC this past weekend and was able to measure three big white pines. I’ll do a more in depth post later but wanted to give you guys the first report.

Helen Holmes and her Pine - photos by Will Blozan

Dad and Aven at Holmes Pine

#1 The Holmes Pine

This is the current NC State Champion. WHAT A BEAUTY! OMG, this tree was so perfect, young and vigorous- one of the finest specimens I have seen. As expected the height was overstated. In 1984 the tree was measured to 162’ tall. In 2005 it was measured (By the NC State girls) to 180’ tall. In 2007 it was measured to 161.2’ tall from two different angles (not even a 0.1’ diff in laser height). The girth was a hefty 12’9” but being a young tree the trunk was nearly conical. I was hoping it would be a big pine but not yet; it will be if all goes well for it.

Cunningham Pine

Cunningham Pine top

#2 The Cunningham Pine

Across the street was another super-fine pine of similar dimensions. A house was literally constructed over this tree’s root system but was done so on carefully placed piers. In fact, the whole yard was old-growth white pine hemlock with an incredible basal area of both species. I measured the pine to 11’8” and 158.8 feet tall. An immediately adjacent pine was even larger in girth (12’2” cbh) but the top was broken, and a nearby hemlock (treated and thriving) was easily 13.5’ X 130+.

Dyleski Pine

Dyleski Pine reitration

#3 The Dyleski Pine

My dad emailed about this tree several weeks ago. A friend of his, literally walking distance from his house, had a pine measured to ~14 feet in girth. Of course I wanted to see it, so we made an appointment. HOLY CRAP! No wild goose chase here! The tree, 14’1” cbh and easily well over 300 years old, was freakin’ immense. It had a broken top at 100’, but more than made up for the loss with at least three huge reiterations. I had the reticle, so I found a shot through the dense brush and hit 5 spots along the trunk and moved to get a top diameter from another location. According to the reticle and my basal measurements, just the trunk has 1006 cubes! I suspect the number to be a bit high but with the reiterations (~50 cubes) added it should be a 1000+ cuber! The trunk was still 12’3” at 10.1 feet (as high as I could measure) SWEET! I plan to climb it in the next few weeks.

All these trees are in the same community!

Will Blozan

President, Eastern Native Tree Society
President, Appalachian Arborists, Inc.