PA black willow at Woodcock Dam   Dale J. Luthringer
  Sep 29, 2003 09:09 PDT 
Bob,

I took a walk with my wife yesterday in a park below Woodcock Dam, a
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam. I made the mistake of taking my laser
with me, you know. just in case. Well, turns out that the engineers
left one fat black willow unscathed in the old flood plain which is now
a field. After getting "permission" from my wife, I did a quick 100
yard dash back to the car to get the rest of my gear that just happened
to be in the car also. I wonder how that happened? Well, I guess I'll
finally have to admit it, Bob. I'm definitely hooked.   When a person
starts carrying around an old set of 'deuce gear' bearing various tree
measuring paraphernalia and a Marine Corps K-Bar, I guess they're
hooked.

Anyway, we spied a fat black willow in the park field. This one was
conspicuous because it did not appear severely multi-stemmed from a
distance as other large ones I've come across. I'd say there were
probably two main fused trunks on this tree, with possibly up to 5 more,
but it had ample time to cover over most of the fuse marks. I had to
take the circumference at 18" off the ground so that I didn't skew my
results as too large. I ended up taking the circumference at the tree's
waist which was only 18" from the ground. I attained the following
numbers:

Height = 69.9ft
Circumference = 21ft
Avg Crown spread = 84.6ft
Total Big Tree Points = 343.1
Crawford County
9/28/03
laser rangefinder/clinometer (sintop+sinbottom)
41 41.736N x 80 6.303W

This is the largest black willow I've come across to date that wasn't
obviously multi-stemmed.   You could walk up into this tree with the
help of a close by picnic table. The inside of the trunk of this tree
was about 5ft off the ground.

Dale
Re: PA black willow at Woodcock Dam   Colby Rucker
  Sep 29, 2003 12:33 PDT 
Dale,

That's an impressive black willow. It probably belongs on some sort of list, but big-tree points aren't appropriate because it's multiple trunked. Putting that aside, counting a circumference taken at an elevation of 18" gives the tree an "unfair" point advantage. That's what started the Rule of 73. Applying the Rule would give a derived CBH of 17.22 feet, or 297.69 points, which is a long way competitively from 343.

I'm just using your tree as an example. We need more trees with unusual structures like that. I think Joe addressed that and referred to Packenham's book. The book is a must; you will be changed.

Colby
RE: PA black willow at Woodcock Dam   Dale J. Luthringer
  Sep 29, 2003 14:10 PDT 
Colby,

I figured it wouldn't go for the official ENTS list. I don't think I've
ever seen a huge black willow that wasn't multi-stemmed. Those
multi-stemmed and mega burl trees sure pose a problem when one tries to
put them in a group with all the other single stems. There's a 5-7
multi-stem trunk white pine growing on the edge of the Clarion River
about 4 miles up from the cabins you stayed at. I put it at 16.9ft CBH
x 114.8ft high in 10/98. Hmmm, there are a number of trees that we
could put into an 'odd and unusual' tree category. Black willow would
fit here quite nicely. I see multi-stems don't stop American Forests
from publishing though.

Dale