Ents,

On 11/12/08, Carl Harting & I got together at Cook Forest for the day to
measure trees.  The main gist was for Carl to show me an incredibly burled
black cherry that he located, which was originally found by Bruce Kershner,
Gerry Horowitz, and I believe Tom Diggins, that I was unable to find.
Bruce told me about this black cherry years ago during an excursion for an
ENTS event at Cook Forest that he spoke at a number of years ago.  I must
admit, that I took what he said in, but wasn't ready to believe a black
cherry of the dimensions he described...  the trunk wasn't incredibly big,
but the burl was HUGE and wrapped completely around the trunk of the tree
about 15' up.  The circumference of the burl including the trunk of the tree
he said was in excess of probably 13ft!  I'm thinking, yeh right, Bruce...
Well, Bruce wasn't spinning any tall tales.  I told Carl about it, and
during his travels, he came across it.  So, today we went out to investigate
and take some pics.

The tree is located within the Deer Meadows Old Growth Area, located behind
the publically owned Deer Meadows Campground.  It stands at 7.2ft CBH x
105.5ft high.  Not large by any means for a black cherry, but the burl makes
it one of the most unique looking trees in the park (see pics).

We decided to settle on naming it the 'Donut Black Cherry', for politically
correct reasons... it certainly looks like something else, shut-up, Will...

Along the way and after, in this same section of woods, we found some other
decent trees worth listing:

*Species          CBH   Height   Comments*

black cherry    7.2     105.5     Donut Black Cherry 41 21.961N x 79 13.454W
black cherry    10.2   120.1+
black cherry    9        119.8+
black cherry    11      *131.4*     very nice, near Donut Black Cherry 41
21.970N x 79 13.481W

E. hemlock     *12.3*    105.9
E. hemlock     N/A     117.1
E. hemlock     11.4    119.4
E. hemlock     *12.2*    124.8

This now makes 34 hemlocks that make it into the coveted 12x100 class and 16
black cherries in the 130ft height class for Cook Forest.

We then worked our way back to one of Carl's old haunts where an old Dairy
Farm used to be along Forest Dr.  He had some other trees he wanted to show
me...  It wasn't long before we proceeded to document some new park girth
and height records.

*Species          CBH   Height   Comments*

black cherry    *11.6*   90.7       park girth record, 41 21.428N x 79
12.450W

E. hophornbeam 1.6   *52.9*      park height record, 41 21.717N x 79 12.486W

quaking aspen    5.4   *97.6*      tallest documented PA, 41 21.428N x 79
12.450W

shagbark hickory 3.8  112
shagbark hickory 3.4  *114.7*    park height record

white ash           7.8   112.7
white ash           7.8  119.6

Next, we wanted to get a decent height & girth on some fat Am. beech just
off Forest Dr. in the Forest Cathedral.  Thankfully they were both still
standing, albeit probably not for long due to beech bark disease.  The
largest turned out to be a co-girth record for the park at 11.6ft CBH x
112.3ft high.  I'll have to return to take a picture.

*Species          CBH   Height   Comments*

Am. beech      10.3    108.1+
Am. beech      *11.5*    112      park co-girth record, 41 21.204N x 79
12.541W

Another fine day at Cook Forest.

Dale