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TOPIC: Parkersburg WV Big Tree Program
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/b6729157bd78eddf?hl=en
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== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Fri, Jan 4 2008 3:52 am
From: "Edward Frank"


ENTS

Turner Sharp wrote: "Basically what I am now involved in came about when I volunteered to help out the City of Parkersburg with their Register of
Big Trees that was a part of their arbor day celebration. It was obvious they had some trouble with tree ID and nomenclature.... If you Google Big Trees Parkersburg you will get my first generation of City information. I am now in process of remeasuring all submissions and am using the ENTS Sine method for height and am gaining a little more confidence as I go. I will reference this on the Parkersburg web site in the near future and that is why I posed the question

City of Parkersburg, WV http://www.parkersburg-wv.com/pages/splash.htm

Parkersburg Tree Commission http://www.parkersburg-wv.com/treecommission/bigtreecontest.htm

Ed Frank

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TOPIC: Name for the ENTS method
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/c18ff8bdf9b07eff?hl=en
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== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Fri, Jan 4 2008 5:25 am
From: tsharp13@suddenlink.net


Bob: Thanks for sharing your story of how you got to the sine method
for tree height. I also have a story - many years ago I was on a three
man team taking forest Inventory plots. The last plot of the day was
called the beer plot. After establishing plot center we would select a
tree and and all three visually estimate DBH and height. The one with
the closest visual estimate would have his beer bought by the others
after work. DBH was never a problem but we had Abney levels and
depending on the tree and where an observor stood we would come up
with widely different tree heights. This was a huge problem. We were
blind followers and never put our mathematician cap to work. We solved
it by only taking one reading for tree height and calling it
definitive. After all we were not interested in the tree height only
who had to buy t he beer. Until Ic ame across the ENTS Web site this
was a nagging problem buried in the back of my mind. Thanks for
freeing me of this burden.
Best to all ENTS in New Year. Turner Sharp

On Jan 3, 10:17 am, dbhg...@comcast.net wrote:
> Gary,
>
> I can understand why Will would have thought that, but no, the ENTS adoption of sine-based mathematics is due to the mathematical investigations of yours truly. I'm not inclined to want to toot my own whistle, but do want the record to read correctly. I was eventually led in the sine direction as a consequence of making some sizable errors on a sugar maple at the base of Todd Mountain. I overshot the height of the former height champion by a full 20 feet and all I was doing was following the procedure for clinometers. I had repeatedly measured the tree in the accompany of both foresters and scientists who acknowledged its validity. Jack Sobon shot down my measurement with his transit. I felt the egg on my face and stopped thinking like a blind follower and put my mathematician cap on my head. I haven't taken it off since to the dismay of Ents who might prefer more qualitative descriptions of our trees.
>
> Bob

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TOPIC: Special Invitation to Turner Sharp
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/f23e97b527c46662?hl=en
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== 1 of 2 ==
Date: Sun, Jan 6 2008 12:59 pm
From: tsharp13@suddenlink.net


Bob: Thanks for the invitation. I will try to attain a rank of "super
measurer" A little about myself would include being raised on a dairy
farm in central Maryland, Graduated from West Virginia University in
the 60's with t wo degrees in Forestry and worked in various aspects
of the Forest Industry ever since until retired several years ago.
Twenty of those years spent owning and operating a Hardwood Lumber
business. Been in West Virginia since 1977 but also spent working
time in Maryland and Pennsylvania prior to that and along the way
acquired a wife, an ex-wife , a new wife, five children, six grand
children , several step children and and grand chrildren and a creaky
cantankerous right knee. I am a long time member of the West Virginia
Highland Conservacy but for the past 15 years have been more active in
the West Virginia Rivers Coalition and the West Virginia Wildwater
Association. I remember finding your website on the Internet while
doing a little research for a newsletter article about the Great
Webster Springs Sycamore. Just prior to that as a frustrated bird
wather I decided to keep a Life List of tree species seen and measured
- after all unlike birds they stay still and my declining hearing is
no handicap - so I was very receptive to your tree height measurement
protocol. I soon acquired a Nikon Pro staff 440, I already owned a
Suunto clinometer and Calculator with trig functions so I have been
practising since October. My goal this coming year is to improve the
City of Parkersburg, WV data collection for their Big Tree contest.
I'll probably make it consistent with American Forests Big Tree
specifications with all heights verfied and attributed to the Ents
Sine Method of course. I soon learned in an urban setting that I did
not know my Albizia from my Zelkova so I have had to do a litt le
studying. My wife loves to hike or I could say vigoursly march thr
ough the woods, I however love to amble through the wood s looking up,
down and around so this has openened up a little dichotomy on how to
procede through a wooded area - so far a minor problem but I may have
to address this in future - maybe with help from fellow Ents. Even
though retired I am still finding a lack of time to get thinks done
but will attempt to become a super measurer and I am definely
interested in the Rucker Index and a site diversity index and will
probably be asking question about them.

TS