How Many Left?   dbhg-@comcast.net
  May 02, 2004 07:58 PDT 

Dale:

   The addition of #61 in MTSF yesterday made me wonder just how many more 150s are lurking in your primary forest Mecca (and my secondary) Cook Forest. I don't recall the full age distribution of pines in Cook. I do know that Anthony Cook has lots of younger pines on his land, but I don't know what the age range is? Do you have a feel? I hope to get over to Cook at least once this summer to walk through some of the less visited spots with you.

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Bob

RE: How Many Left?   Dale J. Luthringer
  May 03, 2004 06:32 PDT 

Bob,

Great work on finding #61. There always seems to be just one more
surprise waiting for us just out of view...

I haven't spent a lot of time in Anthony's second growth white pine
stand. They don't appear to be over much over 130ft from what I can see
from the road. I did find at least one nice one on the slope that went
to just over 140ft off the Indian Trail as you go up that trail from the
Indian Cabins.

I've pretty much wrapped up the section of white pines that Anthony owns
around the Indian Springs in the vicinity of Joyce Kilmer and Bridle
Trails. There are a few dandies in there, but when you proceed south
towards his house and drop over the hill, the heights seem to greatly
diminish, but I haven't walked the whole slope. That is a south facing
slope behind his house. The whole area from the periphery seems
unimpressive for white pine.

Dale
RE: How Many Left?   Robert Leverett
  May 03, 2004 08:12 PDT 

Dale:

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   Do you have a good feel for how many acres of white pines there are
in Cook with younger pines that could grow into the 150 class?

Bob

RE: How Many Left?   Dale J. Luthringer
  May 03, 2004 17:27 PDT 

Bob,

Good question on the number of acres of young pines that could grow into
the 150ft class. My first thought is of pockets separated from the
Forest Cathedral in the 140's, but most of these are over 175-200 years.


The only sections I can think of would be the following:

at the terminus of the Troutman Run watershed and its associated ravine
by the Clarion River. I've got pines growing here that almost reach
150ft in the valley that have grown within an old logging site/splash
dam. They may by in the 150-175 year age class (~25 acres).

The other section would be a definite young white pine section that I
described earlier along the Indian Trail east of Indian Cabins (~25
acres).

There are some promising white pine just east of the state park
campground in the vicinity of Ridge Trail. Many are quite fat, 10-11ft
CBH, x ~130-139ft. But they're mostly on a hilltop, some drop down the
ridge a little bit (~10acres). A good example of what is in there would
be to take a look at the white pine that are growing at the bottom of
the hill behind the amphitheater. The pines on the edge of the
campground are in the 125-135ft class I believe.

What I'm looking at that will bump up the tally for the 150ft class
would be a series of older pines in the Forest Cathedral that are in the
upper 140's. I bet if I remeasured them, some were last measured in
2001, we'd probably get close to 15-20 more in the 150ft class than
including those damaged by wind & lightning.

Dale