ENTS:
        North Bend State Park is located near Cairo, Ritchie County West
Virginia not far off of US 50. The Park contains 2,458 Acres along the
North Fork of the Hughes River, which is a tributary to the Little
Kanawha River, which flows in the Ohio River at Parkersburg, WV.  It
has been a state Park since 1950 and later additions include a flood
control project with a 305 acre lake and a 70 plus mile- rail trail
along the abandoned B&O mainline between Parkersburg and Clarksburg
West Virginia. It has amenities such as a lodge, swimming pool,
camping area, cabins, etc. It also has hosted a wild food weekend
since 1968 that was inspired by writings of the late Euell Gibons who
was also the keynote speaker at the gatherings for eight years.
        Elevation in the park ranges from 1135 down to 670 along the river.
The area containing the measured trees is an unnamed hollow down from
the lodge that contains a wet weather stream. The hollow has a
northeast orientation and is traversed by a paved park road that
connects a picnic area to a playground area. It is as also traversed
by the Nature Trail at river level and Giant Tree Trail somewhat below
the paved road. The paved road generally follows the 800 foot contour
and all trees measured were below road and between 800 and 700
elevation. The area I covered is about 20 acres. Four yellow poplars
and two oaks exhibited old growth characteristics of deeply furrowed
bark and the stag-horn branching in the canopy. The stand has evidence
of previous fire damage and several trees had fencing embedded in
their trunks. At the mouth of the hollow there was much evidence of
beaver activity. No HWA was observed.

 Here are the tallest examples of 18 species measured during March and
April of 2009.
White Pine
P. strobus             11.1     148.7
White Ash
F. americana    6.8     128.2
Yellow-poplar
L. tulipifera   12.7    128.0
Hemlock
T. canadensis   7.8     122.2
Cucumber Magnolia
M. acuminata    7.7     121.4

Five species average                        129.7

Sycamore
P. occidentalis 5.9     121.0
Black Oak
Q. velutina     6.4     113.3
American Beech
F. grandifolia  5.8     111.5
Black Walnut
J. nigra               8.0      111.3
Northern Red Oak
Q. rubra        9.9     109.9

10 species average                      121.5

Black Gum
N. sylvatica    7.6     108.9
Red Maple
A. rubrum               7.1     105.0
White Oak
Q. alba         8.8     104.6
Yellow Buckeye
A. flava               5.0      102.9
Shagbark Hickory
C. ovata              5.2       102.2
Virginia Pine
P. virginiana   3.0     89.7
Pitch Pine
P. rigida             4.2       84.8
Sourwood
O. arborea          3.4 71.0

Two other notable trees measured were a Yellow-poplar at 11.8’ cbh and
124.8’ height and a White Pine 9.3’ cbh and 137.3’ height
It was not until I crawled up and out of the hollow after measuring
one of the big poplars that I realized that two or three of the much
younger bean-pole poplars probably were taller then the ones I had
measured. That will have to wait for another measuring day.
        The Cucumber Magnolia, Black Oak, and Black Walnut heights will set
new state height records unless some fellow ENTS can give me better
ones. I will submit them to the state coordinator, however they have
not updated in five years and do not seem to motivated to do so in the
next five.

Turner Sharp