ENTS,

 

June 4, 2009. I revisited Tallyrand Park in Bellefonte.  Bellefonte is.located in Center County just east of State College. http://www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/penna/willows_bellefonte.htm   It is a historic community founded in 1785 http://bellefonte.com/history.html  Big Spring is a naturally occurring limestone spring that discharges on average 11.5 million gallons of water per day making it the second largest spring in Pennsylvania. The spring is the primary drinking water source for the community and forms the headwaters of Spring Creek in the downtown portion of Bellefonte.  There are a series of linked parks along the course of spring creek.  Talleyrand Park is the largest of these units.

 

On October 04, 2007, Rob Frank and I visited Tallyrand park.  We stopped by to measure the remains of some once impressive trees located along the banks of Spring Creek.  At the time I misidentified the species as black willow.  On that trip we measured a series of snags with girths in the 20 foot range. Unfortunately these were typically hollow half-shells standing from 6 to 15 feet tall, their tops broken off, along the stream banks.  Many showed evidence of fires that had burned in the interior of these shells.  Still they were all alive.  I did not get photos at that time.

 

In January 2009, Bob Cross wrote to provide some more history of the site.  He also reported that a local craftsman who received some of the wood from the lost trees had identified them as white willow. (bottom of above link)

 

I revisited the site on April 1, 2009, but at the time the trees had not yet leafed out.  I again visited the park on June 4th.  At this time I confirmed the identification of the species as white willow (Salix alba).  The tree is native to Europe and western Asia and was imported into this country perhaps as early as the late 18th century.  The results of the initial measurements are presented below: