Foundation Ridge Flat update   djluth-@pennswoods.net   Nov 09, 2006 17:57 PST  Bob, Carl, Tony, Ed, Took a good part of the day to start a thorough search of what we're calling the Foundation Ridge Flat at Cook Forest. It's the flat beside the Clarion River and downhill from Carl's record Am. chestnut. First off I wanted to find Carl's new scarlet oak record, then if I had time, to work back up-river on the base of the hill that comes down into this area. Found Carl's scarlet oak, what a beauty! I was getting very close to the same measurements as Carl's, ~117.9ft high, then worked my way further uphill and found another nested top that I couldn't see from below.   Try as I might, it wouldn't go over 120ft, but after averaging 4 different measurements, 118.8, 119.3, 119.8, 120.8, I settled with 119.7ft. So, Carl's scarlet oak is the bonifide NE height champ. This place is loaded with nice scarlet oaks. They're holding onto their leaves longer than most other oaks, so they're pretty easy to pick out now. After measuring the scarlet oak, I continued to work the area and head along the base of the ridge in the up-river direction. Found a number of other nice scarlets as well as starting to work into a nice stand of upper 130ft/lower 140ft class tulips. Didn't find a new tulip record yet, but DID find a new cucumbertree record for the park. Turns out to be the 2nd tallest known in the NE at a skinny 5.1ft CBH x 126.7ft high! Tony's monster cuke' at McConnell's Mill has a steady hold on the highest recorded at 10.3ft CBH x 131.6ft high. This skinny cuke is almost identical in dimensions to the nearby NE pignut hickory record at 5ft CBH x 126.7ft high. I believe we can attribute its height to growing in between 2 tall tulips (140.3ft, 133ft). This sure is a neat little site. I'm now convinced that I'm going to have to take a couple of cores to get a better idea on stand history. The day's stats follows: Species CBH Height Comments cucumbertree 5.4 107.4 cucumbertree 5.1 126.7 2nd tallest known NE tack 637 41 19.940N x 79 10.120W N. red oak 9 121.4+ scarlet oak 6.6 111.1+ scarlet oak 7.6 112.8 scarlet oak 5 112.9 scarlet oak 8.2 119.7 Carl's NE height record tuliptree 5.8 126 tuliptree 6.1 129.6+ tuliptree 6.8 132.1 tuliptree 8.9 133 tuliptree 8 139.2 tack 639 41 19.929N x 79 10.094W tuliptree 8.1 140.3 tack 636 41 19.943N x 79 10.124W white ash 6.4 118.7+ Cook Forest's Rucker Index now stands at 137.21: Species CBH Height E. white pine 11.1 183.1 E. hemlock 12 146.5 tuliptree 7.4 141.4 black cherry 11.5 137.3 white ash 7.6 128.3 Am. beech 7.5 127.5 white oak 10.7 127.3 red maple 9.1 127.3 pignut hickory 5 126.7 cucumbertree 5.1 126.7 Dale RE: Foundation Ridge Flat update   Carl Harting   Nov 09, 2006 19:20 PST  Dale, I figured you'd eventually squeeze out a taller measurement on the scarlet oak. I really need to take more time when I measure, but then again I had no idea at the time that it might be a NE height record. If you know when you'll be coring those trees please shoot me an email; I'd really like to see you do it. Actually, seeing a tree cored might make a nice presentation at a future ENTS gathering. Carl   Home