ENTS,
Tuesday,
9/5/07
,
was the last day of our expedition.
Beautiful weather, it was going to be another absolutely
gorgeous day. I got up
early to measure a few
hawthorne
at the Buckaloons before we broke camp.
This national forest recreation area is loaded with nice
dotted
hawthorne
specimens. Ed’s eagle
eye for noteworthy
hawthorne
rang true again. First
hawthorne
came to 4.6ft CBH x 40ft high on site 23.
This WAS the current state champ dotted
hawthorne
.
Second one came to 3.1ft CBH and a lofty 45.4ft high on site
16. Easily a new state
height record, possibly a new Northeast U.S height record as well.
Bob, what do you have for
hawthorne
up your way? Will B.,
Will F., Jess, what do you guys get for
hawthorne
down there? I didn’t
get any crown measurements on these trees since we found a number of
better specimens throughout the trip.
We
then packed up and headed down river to set up vehicle shuttle
logistics. Today,
we’d start from the
West
Hickory
bridge and pull out just upstream from Tionesta, a total of 5.2
miles. We were looking
forward to having extra time to spend exploring King and
Baker
Islands
.
Only one problem, I
didn’t anticipate we’d make it this far down river and didn’t
have an updated sticker for my canoe since we were going to use an
agency controlled boat launch.
To make a long story short, we spent about 2hrs dodging the
Fish & Boat Commission Nazis, before we could launch and pick up
Tony downstream.
http://www.fish.state.pa.us/watertrails/alleg/alleg_map3.htm
Once
Tony was on board, it was just a short hop to
King
Island
.
I didn’t want to spend a lot of time here, since I had
fairly well saturated this island earlier with measurements, but I
did want to show Tony & Ed some of the exceptional sycamore and
silver maple on the island. We
re-measured the old bulbous 6 stem silver maple I first measured
back on
6/21/05
.
It now stands at 20.8ft CBH x 103ft tall x 79.5avg spread.
Also re-measured a sweet single stem silver maple to 18.1ft
CBH x 104.3ft high x 70.5ft avg spread for a total of 339 AF Points.
Dale and Anthony debarking on King Island |
Large Silver Maples with Knotweed underneath. |
Huge Multi-trunk Silver maple - 20.8(6x) 103
79.5ft avg spread, 1st measured in
2005
|
Single trunk Silver Maple -
18.1
104.3 70.5ft
avg spread, 339 AF Points, 1st measured in 2005
|
Re-measured
a previous sycamore that only grew 1tenth of foot in over two years.
In June of 2005 I had it at 14.1ft CBH x 119.5+ft high, two
years later it came in at 14.2ft CBH x 120ft high.
Sure would be interesting to see how fast sycamore
grow throughout its life compared to different soil types and
competition. I’ve yet
to count rings or core any sycamore, so I have virtually no feel for
how fast they can grow on certain sites.
A number of the sycamore here have the potential for great
age, but I’ve yet to core or count rings on any large trees of
this species.
Ed
and Tony spent a good bit of time tracking down
hawthorne
and measuring butternut. Ed
& I ended up coming back to
King
Island
a couple weeks later, more to come on this in a future post.
We
then packed up and headed to the last island on our list,
Baker
Island
.
To say the least,
Baker
Island
was a complete surprise to me in terms of tall sycamore and
bitternut hickory. Previous
descriptions stated that
Baker
Island
was hit by the major category IV or V tornado that swept through the
state in 1985. Now that
I think back, I remember riding the high water that was associated
with this storm on a canoe race two days after the storm had passed.
We made record time due to the high water, but barely made
the race on time due to being re-routed around blocked roads from
storm damage. The towns
of West & East Hickory and Tidoute
had major damage with homes and lives lost.
Baker was definitely hit hard, pretty much the entire bottom
half of this island was devoid of any intact large trees, and
dominated by a sprawling grassland with
young butternut coming up like patches of staghorn sumac.
The up-stream half of the island was much more impressive.
Slingshot Sycamore |
Sycamore - 12.1 cbh
145.5
new PA height champ
|
6.5 girth,
25 ft. tall,
girth taken at 1.5ft up from base due to multi-stems at
4.5ft, 30ft avg crown
|
"Snaking" Basswood Tree. |
We
landed at the top of the island and worked down the west side.
Tony was coming in on the right, and Ed was covering the left
flank. It wasn’t long
before we got into an impressive stand of sycamore.
I glanced to my right and noticed a fat sycamore, then slowly
looked up the trunk, it just kept going.
Turns out it ended up being a new state height champ at
12.1ft CBH x 145.5ft high. I
just find this height amazing since it was growing on completely
flat terrain. I believe
sycamore, growing in the right location with the right competition
for sunlight, should be able to grow to even more impressive heights
in
Pennsylvania
.
There were a number of sycamore
here that would’ve made it into the 130ft class interspersed with
110ft class bitternut hickory.
Had a nice hackberry in the center of the grove that went to
9.7ft CBH x 81.6ft high. By
the end of the day we were able to add three more sycamore into the
12x100 club, one of which also being the new state sycamore height
record.
10.7 cbh
68 ft.
tall, top ripped off by 1985 storm
|
|
Sycamore shoots on a partially fallen tree. |
Dale among the Hawthorns |
We
did a thorough search of the island while wading through a foot
snagging grassland coming back up to the top of the island on the
east bank. Ed had
point, but was taken out by a gramanoid
booby trap that wrapped around his ankles. I
almost disappeared down a sizeable woodchuck hole.
Tony had our “6”, and was the only one left unscathed. It
was definitely difficult walking.
Terrain soon tapered back into a shorter stand of silver
maple and fat sycamore as we got closer to our starting point.
The
day’s stats follows:
9/5/07
(Frank, Kelly, Luthringer)
Buckaloons
Species
CBH Height
Comments
Hawthorne
sp.
3.1
45.4
site 16
Hawthorne
sp.
4.6
40
site 23
King
Island
Species
CBH Height
Comments
Butternut
6.4
66.1+
Hawthorne
sp.
4.1above 39.3
43.5ft avg crown
6.4below
Silver
maple
20.8(6x) 103
79.5ft avg spread, 1st measured in
2005
Silver
maple
18.1
104.3 70.5ft
avg spread, 339 AF Points, 1st measured in 2005
Sycamore
14.2
120
1st measured in 2005
Baker
Island
Species
CBH Height
Comments
Am.
Basswood
10.7
68
top ripped off by 1985 storm
Bitternut
hickory
7.7
96
Bitternut
hickory
10.2
102.2
Bitternut
hickory
6.9
108.2
Bitternut
hickory
7.3
109.7
Bitternut
hickory
7.7
110.8
Black
locust
4.5
72+
Butternut
8.8
54+
Common
hackberry
9.7
81.6
beautiful tree
Dotted
hawthorne
6.5
25
girth taken at 1.5ft up from base due to multi-stems at
4.5ft, 30ft avg crown
Silver
maple
13.7
72+
Silver
maple
12.3(2x) 84+
Sugar
maple
7.9
78
Sycamore
11.4
N/A
Sycamore
11
114.1+
Sycamore
13.8
117
Sycamore
8
119.1
Sycamore
12.5
121.2
Sycamore
9.3
123
Sycamore
12.1
145.5
new PA height champ
Yellow
birch
6
N/A
Species
present but not measured = black willow, staghorn sumac, vitus sp.,
white ash
Invasives
= multiflora rose
Multi-trunked Silver Maple on King Island |
By
the time we finished the entire four day expedition, we had
documented a number new
hawthorne
state champ and height records, a slew of personal largest species
measures, and a new state sycamore height record.
We explored 6 different islands in the wilderness area, and
noted trees on 7 of them. In
all, we canoed a total of 17 miles along one the most picturesque
rivers in the state while being blessed with absolutely exceptional
weather. It was truly
an incredible trip with great friends, and one that I will cherish
for quite some time.
Dale
|