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TOPIC: towering tulips
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/t/688aa62675547a9b?hl=en
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== 1 of 3 ==
Date: Sat, Nov 22 2008 3:05 pm
From: treedunn@gmail.com
November 22, 2008
Ents,
I had some time during work today to measure some trees on the
Middleton estate in Gladwyne PA. We do a lot of work on this
property
and have always marveled at these towering tulips. Surprisingly some
of the largest trees on the property sit atop the ridgeline.
However,
the largest was mid slope. The area is just covered with trees over
100 feet and the largest I could find are as follows:
Tulips
138.1
128.9
127.6
124.0
Ill be doing some dbh’s once I get a new tape, but the 128 tulip
is
probably pushing 45 inches for about 80 feet up the trunk. It’s a
truly impressive tree. This site has a few hundred trees so I will
definitely be recording more data here in the future.
Michael B. Dunn
== 2 of 3 ==
Date: Sat, Nov 22 2008 3:35 pm
From: "Edward Frank"
Mike,
More numbers! It is great to have another person actively measuring
trees in that area of the state. It will give Scott some
competition. Most of our formulas and compilations use the girth of
the tree in feet and tenths or feet and inches rather than
diameters. because the diameter tape has the built in assumption
that the tree is perfectly round. So when it converts the girth to
diameter it yields numbers that are higher than actual effective
diameter of the tree. So you don't need to buy a fancy dbh tape to
generate numbers for the list. A cheap one from a hardware store
works fine. The hook on the live end of the tape does work slick for
hooking into the bark when measuring, but is not an absolute
necessity (mine doesn't have one).
Those are respectable heights for PA tuliptrees. Some of the best
sites here in western PA top out in the upper 140's, most don't have
trees that tall. The tallest documented in the state is in Fairmont
Park in Philadelphia at 158.6. Dale Luthringer tells me that he
finds the tallest trees right at the base of the slope especially
along river corridors. I hope you will compile some Rucker Indexes
for eastern PA. We only have one I believe from that end of the
state. A Rucker Index if the numerical average of the tallest
example from each of the ten tallest species on the site. There was
a short article about the Rucker Index in the last ENTS Bulletin. I
am encouraging people to measure as many species as possible even
beyond the minimal ten species. http://www.nativetreesociety.org/measure/rucker_index_thoughts.htm
The more detail on a site the better, but whatever you can squeeze
in on trip is good. Jess Riddle does remarkable reports describing
the everything from the geology and hydrology of a site to the
undergrowth and herbaceous species, to the tallest trees on a site.
Will Blozan and several others also excel in this area. Photos are
good to include with site and tree description. Some people are on
dial-up connections, so we try to keep the posts as small as
possible with relatively small sized and compressed photos included
in the post. Larger versions or more photos can always be sent to me
individually via email and posted with the text to the website when
I do the next round of updates.
Welcome to the world (according to the Virginia Big Tree Site) of
tree measuring fanatics.
Ed Frank
Join the Primal Forests - Ancient Trees Community at:
http://primalforests.ning.com/
== 3 of 3 ==
Date: Sat, Nov 22 2008 3:55 pm
From: DON BERTOLETTE
Ed-
When you get to bigger trees, you might want to employ a trick
foresters have used for years...go to your favorite local hardware
store and pick up a horseshoe nail...a pair of pliers will bend the
nail around the tape's bail, and the rest can be bent into a
rudimentary hook that works well in all kinds of bark (well, hickory
can be tough...). Also used a lot with another forester tool, the
logger's tape, where you stick the hook into the bark and walk out
to your prescribed distance (of course, this is for those who
haven't been able yet to invest in higher tech equipment).-
DonRB
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