Our Lady of Angels Convent, Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, PA   wad-@comcast.net
  Mar 21, 2005 14:51 PST 
ENTS.

Location: Aston township, Delaware county, Pa
elevation 200-310 above sea level.
Soil type: Rocky red clay, and other places with granite outcropping and loam.
PH level 4.5-5.5

This area is a small piece of Piedmont that borders the costal plain. The Sisters of St Francis of Philadelphia came to this site in 1873 to start a convent. The property has grown to 280 acres, of which much has remained open space. It is now surrounded by sprawl and development. Much of the land was farmed early on, but some areas that were too steep, or too rocky, avoided the farmers plow. 

Five sources of headwater for the Chester creek originate on this property via natural springs. In the areas that were not farmed, the forest floor is covered in spring with many native plants like trout lilly, cutleaved toothwort, spring beauty, may apple, blood root, and others. The next layer is comprised of mostly spicebush due to the whitetail deer, but maple and arrowwood viburnums, low bush blueberry, native azalea, mountain laurel, chokecherry, and american holly are present. The understory trees consist of dogwood, black cherry, ironwood, and hawthorne among some others. Invasive non native plants are a real threat to our forest, and war is waged daily on these pests. Today I found Mahonia bealii growing in the woods. Japanese knotweed is by far the most damaging and hardest to control. 

bitternut_hickory2.jpg (98925 bytes)

Bitternut hickory 10.8cbh x 111.5' This tree is nominated for the Pennsylvania state champion tree list. It is an old wounded giant, with two of the major branches missing. I took the photo with the timer.

mockernut_hickory.jpg (106264 bytes)

Mockernut hickory 8.7cbh x 117.6' This tree is in great shape and still has potential to grow. I took the photo with the timer.

sycamore2.jpg (112799 bytes)

Sycamore 15.9cbh x 118.9' This tree sits in a draw on the same north facing slope as the poplar above. It grows within 30 feet of an old springhouse. All of which is in the middle of the woods now. I took the photo.

The large trees on the property are quite diverse. Black, red, white, chestnut, post, and pin oaks. Bitternut, mockernut, pignut, shagbark and shellbark hickory. Red and silver maples. Chestnut, sour gum, elm, green and white ash. Black, pin, and bird cherry. Beech, sycamore and poplar of course. It is a nice patch of ground that we hope to preserve. I am the grounds manager for the property, and it is alot of work.

Poplar2.jpg (104754 bytes)

Tulip poplar 15.8cbh x 137.5' This is another wounded giant. It is missing a couple of major limbs, but seems to be in good shape. I am looking forward to watching this tree make 150'. It sits on a north facing slope about an 1/8 of a mile from a medium size creek. I took the photo, the hat is for reference. The next photo is of the canopy.

 poplar_canopy2.jpg (53014 bytes)

Tulip poplar canopy 

 white_ash.jpg (97431 bytes)

White ash 15.2cbh x 91.7' Although this is not the one used in the rucker index, it made a better photo. Sitting on a different north facing slope, this ash is badly damaged. I took the photo with the timer.

Here is a list of the measured trees. All done with the rangefinder/clinometer method.

Black cherry                   8.0cbh x 79'
White ash                      15.2cbh x 91.7'
White ash                      14.1cbh x 103.4'
White ash                      10.1cbh x 112.1'R
Tulip poplar                   11.0cbh x 121.4'
Tulip poplar                   11.1cbh x 112.2'
Tulip poplar                   15.8cbh x 137.5' "soopa doopa" R
Tulip poplar                   11.3cbh x 122.4'
Tulip poplar                   12.0cbh x 125.2'
Black oak                      10.9cbh x 110.7' R
Black oak                      12.3cbh x 91.5'
Black oak                      11.3cbh x 93.0'
Black oak                      13.1cbh x 106.3'
Red oak                         12.5cbh x 115.8' R
Red oak                         14.6cbh x 102.5' new tree to me today!
Red oak                         10.9cbh x 101.1'
Red oak                         10.1cbh x 102.4'
Red oak                         10.2cbh x 106.6'
Dead red oak                 13.7cbh
Sour gum                       8.2cbh x 96.4'   (Nyssa sylvatica)
Mockernut hickory          8.7cbh x 117.6' R
Mockernut hickory          8.2cbh x 110.2'
Beech                            10.4cbh x 98.4'
Beech                            10.4cbh x 95.4'
White oak                      12.7cbh x 106.0' R
White oak                      12.2cbh x 72.2'
White oak                      13.9cbh x 96.2'
Bitternut hickory             10.8cbh x 111.5' R
Shagbark hickory             7.8cbh x 93.0'
Pignut hickory                  7.6cbh x 115.9' R
Red maple                       7.7cbh x 82.7'
Dead pignut hickory       11.3cbh
Sycamore                      15.9cbh x 118.9' R
Chestnut oak                 10.8cbh x 84.4' very rocky north facing slope
Shellbark hickory            7.9cbh x 105.5 R

That gives me a rucker index(R) of: 1151.5/10= 115.2'

Should easily reach 130 someday.

Scott Wade
RE: Rucker/trip report from SE Pa.   Dale J. Luthringer
  Mar 21, 2005 15:58 PST 
Scott,

Outstanding finds! You certainly have some fat trees down there. I'm
very glad to see your using the rangefinder/clinometer method. Now I
can get to work updating our 12x100 files. Will's been saying there's
plenty of them down your way. I'm afraid this is going to be a regular
thing now. That's 8 more trees for the PA 12x100 club!

The pignut is the tallest on record so far for PA, although I only have
a few pignuts in my database.  Great stuff.

I've got a few questions though. What do you call that ~280 acre site
in Ashton Township? Sisters of St. Frances?

Are any of your trees doubles? Your 15.2ft CBH white ash and 15.8ft CBH
tulip are impressive.

The mockernut and shellbark hickory are the first we've recorded so far
in PA using ENTS methods. I just haven't got into any up in my neck of
the woods. We don't have any post/pin oaks or pin cherry recorded for
the state yet either. Sure would be nice to get some stats on them too.

Looks like Philly is assuming its rightful place in our tall/big tree
stats!

Dale
RE: Rucker/trip report from SE Pa.   wad-@comcast.net
  Mar 21, 2005 16:52 PST 
Dale, ENTS

The sites name is Our Lady of Angels Convent in Aston, Pa 19014. Funny thing, it was named Ashton originally, but is is Aston now.

None of the trees are doubles or coppices, they are all in the woods, or used to be in the woods. 

We have a couple pin oaks I can measure, but pin cherry will never impress you as it fizzles out under competition. The bird cherry gets big, but it is introduced. American forests does recognize it though as being naturalized.

There is another site in Chester county that has alot of hickory that I hope to get to this spring. Did you notice there weren't any evergreens? Not too many around here that are native (read not planted) Thanks for the comments.

Scott
Re: Rucker/trip report from SE Pa.   Michele Wilson
  Mar 25, 2005 20:55 PST 

I really enjoy reading through the vertical layers. Thanks, Scott. Jess is really good at that, too, if I'm remembering the emailers correctly, and some others on this list. A few years ago, I started getting even more detailed with stand information in this way when writing management plans, my clients seem to enjoy it, and reading how others do it sort of serves as a refresher course every now and then...and it certainly helps me to picture all those wonderful places that all of you have been to that I haven't been to yet.
Michele