Porters Bowl   Jess Riddle   Oct 19, 2003 19:10 PDT  Last weekend I went looking for new height records in the Greenbrier section of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Within that area, I wanted to visited an area gentle, north-facing slopes bounded by steep slopes on three sides forming a bowl. The flat bottom and rich soils of this well sheltered, moist area probably made the site prime farm land prior to the formation of the park. I saw one rock cairn in the lower part of the area and a couple of terraces, but no rock walls; the rockiness of the cove may have prevented farming the entire area. Either as a result of farming or logging, tuliptrees have been able to form a nearly pure stand over much of the area. Striped maple and hemlock area the most common species in the understory of this 65 to 80 year old forest. Basal areas are high, especially around the edges of the bowl and on the north facing slopes just west of the bowl closer to Porters Creek, but canopy gaps up to about an acre in size are also common. Tuliptrees are more scattered and slightly larger in diameter on the steep, north-facing back of the bowl. Sugar maple, yellow buckeye and bitternut hickory are more common on these boundary slopes, which appear to have been only selectively cut in the past. Species Cbh Height Drainage Comment Ash, White 6'6" 141.5' Bowl New TN. record? Hickory, Bitter NA 120.6' Bowl Easy shot Hickory, Bitter 12'10" ~131' Bowl Some root flair in measurement, but massive tree, did not explore above tree Locust, Black NA 125.0' Bowl 130'+ seen, 140'+ likely present Oak, N Red coppice ~133' Bowl Uncommon sp. in area Sassafras 3'3.5" 109.6' Gap Several comparable trees in grove Sycamore 7'0" ~131' Creek Species absent from bowl Sycamore NA 135.4' Creek A few others of comparable height Tuliptree NA 140.2' Creek Tuliptree 9'0" 141.8' Creek Tuliptree NA 143.8' Creek Tuliptree NA 149.1' Bowl Tuliptree NA 149.9' Bowl Tuliptree 6'3.5" 151.8' Creek Tuliptree 7'2" ~152' Creek Slingshot, very low codominant Tuliptree 7'8.5" 152.7' Creek Tuliptree NA 153.3' Bowl Tuliptree NA 154.7' Creek Tuliptree 5'4.5" ~155' Creek Walnut, Black 7'2.5" ~125' Creek Several codominant leads 8' cbh Tuliptrees were generally common, and some of the shorter trees closer to Porters Creek exceeded 10'. The canopy height in the middle of the bowl is probably a consist 130' something. I feel certain that some of the tuliptrees reach 160' in the area. Since the bottom of the cove covers about 100 acres, the above listing of a part of a day's worth of searching just scratches the surfaces of the area. The back wall of the cove may support taller bitternut hickories and ash as well as more tall tuliptrees. Also, three, steep, narrow coves just west of the bowl that open into densest tuliptree stands I saw were not searched. Jess Riddle   Home