Baker Island ARIW PA

Baker Island, ARIW, PA

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TOPIC: Baker Island, Allegheny River Island Wilderness, PA
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/b5c2c415bdb88c08?hl=en
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== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Sat, Jun 28 2008 9:26 pm
From: "Edward Frank"

ENTS,

late Wednesday afternoon, June 18, 2008, I met Dale Luthringer at Cook Forest for a quick trip to Baker Island. We had visited the island as part of a four day expedition to several islands in the Allegheny River Island Wilderness last fall http://www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/penna/ariw2007/ariw2007c.htm On the island we had documented the tallest sycamore in Pennsylvania. We wanted to get some better photographs of the tree and a new measurement. Dale had spent the afternoon doing a canoeing program at the park, so we did not get out till around 4:30 pm. The drive isn't far. The pan was to wade the Allegheny River to the island. The water was not particularly high and it was doable. we drove along the dirt road paralleling the island until we reached the lower end, parked and looked for a place to cross. Unfortunately there was a pretty good sized cliff between us and the river shoreline. We walked back upstream finally finding a place where we could get to the river edge just above the upstream end of the island. We made our way to the river and started to wade across. Dale crossed a little lower than I did. There the water was shallower, but swifter. I went higher, but deeper. The current was a bit more than we anticipated. I wobbled on my feet and dunked my rear into the water, but did not fall in. Fortunately the cameras and measuring gear were safely in a double zip-locks in my backpack. Both of us made it across without further incident.

We walked along the shore down to where the larger trees were found. On the trip to the island Dale showed me a book containing accounts of the tornado that ripped across the area in 1985. Several people were killed in the towns along the Allegheny River. On Baker Island itself the entire lower end of the island was wiped clear of trees. One of the trees we measured on our fall trip was a fat basswood,10.7 feet GBH, that had its top ripped off by the wind. It reached a height of only 68 feet after the tornado damage. One photograph showed the lower end of the island and we thought a tree shown in the photograph might be the broken basswood we had measured.

Anthracnose

Sugar Maple and a taller sycamore

The tall sycamore we were searching for was just of the area destroyed by the tornado winds. I retook several photos of trees that had not come out well the first trip. Dale looked for the tall sycamore. The GPS location he had turned out to be off by some distance - I am unsure why, but he found the tree shortly. All of the sycamores on the island were suffering from Anthracnose, with a very thin canopy.

147.7 foot tall, 12.1 GBH American sycamore - photo by Dale Luthringer (note me for scale)

147.7 foot tall, 12.1 GBH American sycamore - photo by Dale Luthringer (note me for scale)

The remeasure of the tree found it to be actually taller than the season before at 147.7 feet tall - again making it the tallest American sycamore in PA. We also measured another nice American Basswood near the broken top specimen at 8.7 GBH (at 6.5 feet above the double trunk) and 72.1 feet tall.

Baker Island
species CBH height Comments

Am. basswood 8.7 (at 6.5') 72.1
bitternut hickory 5.9 117.1
sycamore 12.1 147.7 state height record

After we finished remeasuring the sycamore and these other trees, we headed back across the river. On the way back I was moving more against the current than on the way to the island, making footing more difficult. Dale and I made it back across the river without incident. It was getting late and we did not have time to visit King Island in the wilderness, so we opted to go and try to measure a large sycamore in the town of Warren

Kirk Johnson had told Dale about this sycamore in someone's back yard. Dale had stopped at the residence before, but had not gotten permission to measure on the previous trip. With further email correspondence by Kirk, we thought we would stop back and talk to the people again. It is a magnificent specimen of the tree.

Warren
species CBH height Comments

sycamore 20.6 119 avg spread = 108.4ft
longest spread = 123.1ft, 393.3AF Points

Warren Sycamore 119 feet tall, 20.6 feet GBH

Dale measured its height to 119 feet tall. The girth measured at breast height was 20.6 feet. It also was 20.6 feet at the highest point I we could reach. We spent some time measuring crown spread. Using the shortest an longest we got an average crown spread of 108.4 feet. Using the radius (spoke) method the crow was closer to 113 feet, and I feel this is a much more representative value and a better way to measure crown spread. By this time it was getting pretty dark. We measured the tree and talked to the owner for awhile. The photos I took still are not the best given the lighting.

== 2 of 3 ==
Date: Sun, Jun 29 2008 7:25 am
From: James Parton

Ed,

Nice sycamores! I would have loved to have been with you guys.

JP

== 3 of 3 ==
Date: Sun, Jun 29 2008 8:23 am
From: djluthringer@pennswoods.net

Ed,

Thanks for posting this trip!

The book was an excerpt from 'Tornado Tales', that Carl recently gave me. It is
a collection of small essays of Forest County folks who lived through the
devasting 5/31/85 tornados. One picture was the devastation of Carpenter Lane
and adjacent Baker Island on the Allegheny River as the tornado travelled from
west-east. It was amazing to see the trees on the upstream side of the island
still standing, but devoid of any vegetation. I am convinced that the tall
sycamore we measured there is the one crown that stands out in the picture.
Yes, I agree that twisted basswood in the picture is the one we measured last
September as well.

The river crossing was a bit precarious. Another six inches higher with that
flow and we wouldn't have been able to do it. I think while we were on the
island, the river came up about 2". Bob, this is where the ballast derived
from a healthy diet of donuts & ice cream comes in handy... It's a good thing,
Ed & I aren't light weights, we were just about ready to practice future acting
careers as doubles for the sequel of the movie, 'A River Runs Through It'
(fishing scene).

The new sycamore height was probably closer to Anthony's measurement taken last
September, but we couldn't confirm it then with a second shot. I believe last
week's higher shot was due to one of the benefits of a thin crown from
Anthracnose, given us a better view of the top. The base was miserable to
measure without help because of the 5ft layer of vegetation at its base.

The sycamore in Warren was a beauty. Scott, it's another one to add to our 20 x
100 list... The girth at 7.4ft up was 19.6ft though, not 20.6.

Dale

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