Nicholas County, WV trees   Fores-@aol.com
  Oct 31, 2004 05:51 PST 
ENTS:

I wanted to pass on the bio of a nice stick of yellow poplar I encountered
this past week in Nicholas County, West Virginia. The tree was 35" DBH (9.1'
CBH) and had a profound U fork at 110' where the diameter was still between
14 and 16." Because of a thick cover I was unable to get a definitive height
with my clinometer but the tree was in excess of 140' tall.

There have been a number of trees on this property in that size class but
the big "U" fork made an incredibly good target for a height estimate.   These
trees are running about 100 years old and the largest poplars we have seen are
over 13' CBH but only about 130' tall. Thus far the biggest red oak is 12'
CBH.

I sure hope to get some "expert" ENTS measurements on some of the 13-15' CBH
red oaks I have been keeping my eyes on.

Russ Richardson
Re: WV trees   Fores-@aol.com
  Oct 31, 2004 18:41 PST 
Will:

Up to this point, I have not seen HWA in the area where I work. I have
heard that they are in several areas of the WV mountains but the nearest
infestations are at least 30 miles east of here. I am trying to encourage hemlock
where I can. In this part of WV it will be interesting to see how fast HWA
spreads. The woods around here are 96% hardwood with the softwood component
composed of Virginia pine, native loblolly pine, pitch pine and white pine with
hemlock found in scattered locations. Here at Crummies Creek less than 1% of
our property even has measurable hemlock basal area. As a private
consulting forester working in central WV I have sold less than 10,000 board feet of
hemlock in the past fifteen years.   Hemlock seems to be far more common in
eastern Ohio than it is in central WV.

Russ Richardson
Re: WV trees   Fores-@aol.com
  Oct 31, 2004 18:53 PST 
Bob:

The best sites depend on what species you are after.

The Little Kanawha River has some extremely impressive sycamore along its
banks while the central coves could harbor some impressive white oak.

Red oak of impressive size can be found on a variety of sites.

Basswood grows nearly as tall as poplar but tends to be cleaner on some of
the best sites.

With nearly 50 different species considered commercially important, there
are some incredibly diverse sites in WV and I would have to give some thought as
to which trees grow best.

I would say however that for the tallest and highest quality cherry, red oak
and yellow poplar that Nicholas and Webster Counties have some of the most
productive sites in West Virginia.

Tucker County, where Fernow Experimental Forest is located has some of the
most exceptional yellow poplar sites known along the Dry Fork River.

I still have not seen the Widen poplar although it is probably less that 40
miles away from Crummies.

Russ