Keystone State Park PA

Keystone State Park, PA

==============================================================================
TOPIC: Keystone State Park
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/c2dc8529cfa5b04e?hl=en
==============================================================================

== 1 of 2 ==
Date: Wed, Aug 20 2008 4:55 pm
From: "Dale Luthringer"

ENTS,

On 8/16/05 and 3/27/08 I had two opportunities to visit Keystone State
Park, located about one hour east of Pittsburgh.

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/parks/keystone.aspx

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/parks/keystone/keystone_mini.pdf

"The 1,200-acre Keystone State Park is great for day-trips and family
vacations year-round. Camping, modern cabins, many trails and a lake are
all within walking distance, providing an ideal setting for wildlife
watching or outdoor adventures. The park is within easy driving distance
from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area and its many attractions."

This 1,200 acre state park contains mostly second and third growth
deciduous forest surrounding a man made lake. It took me two different
trips that coincided with training & meeting sessions to be able to get
enough species to calculate a basic Rucker Index of 109.4. What was
interesting was the decent sized pignut and shagbark hickories, as well
as a nice assortment of N. red oaks. One shagbark is the tallest we
have documented so far in Pennsylvania State Parks at 4.7ft CBH x
120.2ft high. It was also nice to measure some table mountain pine that
were planted in orchards by the C.C.C. boys over 70 years ago. The one
pine orchard contained red, white, pitch, and table mountain pines. One
particular table mountain pine is also the tallest documented so far in
the Northeast at 3.9ft CBH x 81.9ft high. There's a lot of opportunity
to beat this height though since there's only a handful we have so far
in the data base.

Here's the tally which encompasses four different areas of the park
located around the lake:

Species CBH Height Comments

Black cherry N/A 109+

Black cherry 5.2 112.8

Black oak 5.5 102.1+

N. red oak 5.1 95.9

N. red oak N/A 117.2

N. red oak 9.2 120.1+ 40 22.589N x 769 23.155W

Pignut hickory 7.2 111.5

Pitch pine N/A 79.7

Red maple 7.6 102

Red maple 7.1 105.2

Red maple N/A 108.2

Shagbark hickory 8.9 87.6

Shagbark hickory N/A 100.6+

Shagbark hickory N/A 105.6

Shagbark hickory 5 112.5

Shagbark hickory N/A 112.6

Shagbark hickory 4.8 116.6

Shagbark hickory 4.7 120.2 40 22.588N x 79 23.157W

Table mountain pine 3.9 73.6

Table mountain pine 4.5 77.7

Table mountain pine 3.9 77.9

Table mountain pine 3.9 79.4

Table mountain pine 3.9 81.9 40 22.277N x 79 22.807W

Tuliptree N/A 130.2

Tuliptree N/A 131

White ash N/A 100

White ash N/A 120.5

White oak 13.9 85.7

The current Rucker Index for Keystone State Park comes in at 109.4:

Species CBH Height Comments

Tuliptree N/A 131

White ash N/A 120.5

Shagbark hickory 4.7 120.2 tallest known in PA State Parks

N. red oak 9.2 120.1+

Black cherry 5.2 112.8

Pignut hickory 7.2 111.5

Red maple N/A 108.2

Black oak 5.5 102.1+

White oak 13.9 85.7

Table mountain pine 3.9 81.9 tallest known in NE

---------------------------------------

Dale

== 2 of 2 ==
Date: Wed, Aug 20 2008 6:09 pm
From: "Edward Forrest Frank"

Dale,

Excellent report, I like to see reports of new places even if there was nothing spectacular found there.

Ed

Home