Webster Springs Sycamore WV

Webster Springs Sycamore WV

April 20, 2008. On the way up route 19 I saw a sign for Webster Springs. Webster Springs is the location of a giant sycamore tree that was set afire by arsonists last fall. There are a couple of reports about the tree on the website: http://www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/west_virginia/webster/webster_springs.htm It was first visited by Will Blozan in 2005. Will reported the following stats for the tree: [Total height 144.3', Circumference (mid) 28.7' (344"), Height to forks 78.3', Crown spread 102'] In April 2007 Will Blozan and jess Riddle returned to the site and used a reticle to model the volume of the tree and determined the trunk alone had a volume of 2,214 cubic feet, making it the largest volume sycamore ever modeled. http://www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/penna/nwpacook2007/nw_pennsylvania.htm In September 2007 arsonists attacked the tree http://www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/west_virginia/arson_and_a_big_wv_sycamore.htm

(http://phpads.cnpapers.com/adclick.php?n=a8f0fd0c) WEBSTER SPRINGS Someone set fire to a 500-year-old sycamore tree in Webster County Monday afternoon, authorities said. "It's an old landmark," said Sgt. Curt Tonkin of the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources law enforcement section. "It's a huge sycamore that s been a landmark here for several hundred years." The fire broke out at the tree, located on the Back Fork of Elk River, around noon Monday, Tonkin said. The tree survived the flames, but was damaged. Investigators have determined that the fire was caused by arson. We are not sure the extent of the damage yet, Tonkin said. "It didn't burn down. [The fire] burnt up the inside of the tree." "The tree trunk was hollow and people could walk inside of it. Authorities have closed the area around the tree until we conduct an investigation of just exactly how much was damaged, if it's going to live or even be safe to be around." Tonkin said. The Webster Springs Fire Department, Webster Sheriff's Department and the state Division of Forestry responded to the fire, Tonkin said. They were on scene for several hours, as the fire smoldered even after the flames were out.

I wanted to check out the tree and see if the tree was still alive. I turned off the interstate and headed down 30 miles of twisted back country roads before reaching Webster Springs. There I stopped and ask the first person I met about the tree. He was a packer from the local grocery store helping load groceries into a car. He indicated the tree was still standing and gave me directions.

The directions were good and I quickly found the tree. It was blocked off by Posted signs and a wire fence, but unfortunately did not notice these signs or fence until after I visited the tree. The tree is still standing the front side of the tree is not damaged badly, but the back side is damaged. I could not tell if the tree was still alive. There were no leaves sprouted at the top of the tree, but then the leaves on other sycamores in the area have not leaved out yet either. The tree has not fallen.

There are no dead branches that have fallen from the tree, and the smaller branchlets at the top of the tree are also intact.

Enlarged photos of upper branches

Whether the tree survived or not depends on whether the fire was hot enough to destroy the living cambium layer on the outside of the tree from the fire burning on the inside. The other problem is that even if some of the outer living layer is not dead from the fire, there may not be enough of it left alive to fed the top of the tree. We can only watch and hope, but I am not optimistic

== 2 of 3 ==
Date: Wed, Apr 23 2008 9:17 pm
From: "Edward Frank"

Here is what I know about the arsonists:

News Release: Jan. 14, 2008
Leslie Fitzwater, Public Information Specialist, (304) 558-2003, ext. 342,
lfitzwater@wvcommerce.org
Contact: Sam Butcher, Forestry Investigative Unit Supervisor,
sbutcher@wvforestry.com, (304) 558-2788
Arrest Made in Webster County Sycamore Fire
Juvenile faces felony charges
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Investigators from the Divisions of Forestry and Natural
Resources and the Webster County Sheriff's Office have determined a juvenile should be
charged with setting fire to a historic Sycamore tree in Webster County last year. The
juvenile, age 17, from Bergoo has been charged with a felony count of arson for setting
fire to the lands of another. A second juvenile also was charged with a misdemeanor for
providing investigators with false information in regards to this case. The preliminary
hearing is set for Jan. 17.

Forestry Investigator Art Yagel was praised for helping to bring this four-month
investigation to an end.

"Art's extraordinary efforts to solve this case resulted in the successful conclusion
of this investigation," said Forestry Investigative Unit Supervisor Sam Butcher. "Despite
being brought into the case several days after the arson occurred, Art was able to work
with other agencies and gain their trust and cooperation to track down the culprit."
The sycamore, estimated to be at least 500 years old, received extensive damage
in the Sept. 3, 2007, fire and will not recover from its injuries. Experts have inspected
the tree and recommend that it may either have to be cut down or fenced off as a safety
measure.
For more information about the Division of Forestry, visit the Web site,
www.wvforestry.com.

== 3 of 3 ==
Date: Wed, Apr 23 2008 9:36 pm
From: DON BERTOLETTE

Ed-
I know it's not about trees, but recently our local paper detailed the extensive damage to a local high school ($150,,000) by two juveniles, who were quoted numerous times (like, they weren't ashamed...) saying they did it out of boredom. I guess I'm like many of the more irate parents, not able to understand this, but everyone of us has ideas on the kind of community service these kids need to be a part of...cleaning up the mess they made, about 16 hours a day, bread and water rations...not going to happen, the schools budget for this, have had traditionally poor success in getting reimbursed through court proceedings. And the bored juveniles parents usually get off (financially anyway...socially they're likely to be tarred and feathered.
Guess I'm getting old...
-Don

== 2 of 4 ==
Date: Thurs, Apr 24 2008 6:08 am
From: ForestRuss@aol.com

Don:

I'm certain that those kids have been pretty much socially tarred and
feathered. In that part of WV people take their trees extremely
seriously...especially old ones. With so little else happening economically in Webster
County... almost nothing beyond timber and coal, the big sycamore tree was becoming
one of the more reliable sources of tourist dollars.

On the other hand, quoting from I think is attributed to the great
intellectual Forest Gump..."stupid is as stupid does"

Russ

== 4 of 4 ==
Date: Thurs, Apr 24 2008 5:12 pm
From: Michael Davie

Now, now. They're just stupid kids. It is horrible, though.
I will say, those buds look very swollen. It might have a little
more time left in it. But, I wouldn't recommend standing around that
tree in a storm.

==============================================================================
TOPIC: Webster Springs Sycamore
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/c4222ac9d5d959bf?hl=en
==============================================================================

== 1 of 3 ==
Date: Tues, Apr 29 2008 8:49 am
From: "Michele Wilson"

For the kid's sentence, the court ought to force the kid to go to lots of public high schools for a 100 mile radius or somewhere thereabouts and relay his story to other kids... to help educate everyone, perhaps even their teachers, on how we should all respect what's out there. Who knows, maybe thousands of new fledgling ents could be born... Have the kid earn his/her own expenses to pay for milage to get to all the schools to boot!

So that's my sentence for such tomfoolery.
Michele Wilson

-

== 2 of 3 ==
Date: Tues, Apr 29 2008 3:45 pm
From: Beth Koebel

And they should have to plant a tree at each high
school they go to.

Beth
-

== 3 of 3 ==
Date: Tues, Apr 29 2008 6:50 pm
From: ForestRuss@aol.com

Michele:

Most of West Virginia is quite rural and there are few counties with more
than one high school. In that part of WV it would amount to about four to six
high schools and less than a fifteen hundred students.

Try to imagine endless miles of terrain like you find around Monroe Bridge,
Massachusetts and the Deerfield Valley from Mohawk Park and Todd Mountain
upstream...only with no flat land on either side of the river...and the only
thing that you find at the top of a hill is the other side.

With the cost of gasoline hitting $3.75 a gallon here today those guys would
end up as local celebrities if anyone spent that much money to ride them
anywhere. Also based on their nefarious act and the neighborhood from where
they hail, I believe it would be an ambitious assumption to expect that the
perps possess the communication skills necessary to speak effectively in public.

Russ

==============================================================================
TOPIC: WV big trees
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/fb7e16dca3526a12?hl=en
==============================================================================

== 1 of 3 ==
Date: Thurs, May 22 2008 8:59 am
From: ForestRuss@aol.com

ENTS:

I spent the past couple of days helping conduct the annual training for the
naturalists that work in the West Virginia State Parks.

Part of the session involved measuring big trees.

Too much went on to discuss at this time but much of the tree measuring
discussion centered on the search for big trees and how to measure them. After
lengthy discussion, the ENTS methods of extreme math and the aid of lasers to
accurately measure large trees appears to have a convincing lead over
traditional forestry techniques.

I think that if some of the PA ENTS are interested in conducting a big tree
measuring demonstration at Cathedral SP in WV, it is very possible that one
could be arranged to take place this summer? Carl and Tony, Ed....any of you
interested? Mike Powell, the Cathedral SP Super is an ENTS lurker and I hope
he does a post soon!

Until I listened to different measuring methods being used I had no idea of
what a convoluted mess of incredibly tall trees there are and the spread of
ideas on where the measure DBH, CBH, inches, centimeters, feet, 1/10 of
feet....what a general crock..... I think ENTS is raising the bar on the
measurement and quantification of the size and volume of trees to an art form.

On one hand I do not expect any older forestry professionals in the current
generation to take the techniques to heart and use them in their work but as
time passes it will become embarrassing to continue to ignore the
technological advances that ENTS methods of tree measurement take advantage of.

Finally, the Webster Springs sycamore is expected to die and the road to the
park where the tree is located has been closed because the tree is
considered too hazardous. The loss of the tree is viewed by the locals as a serious
historical and economic loss to the area because so many people came from
across the country just to look at the tree.

Russ Richardson

== 2 of 3 ==
Date: Thurs, May 22 2008 4:04 pm
From: Randy Brown

> Finally, the Webster Springs sycamore is expected to die and the
> road to the park where the tree is located has been closed because
> the tree is considered too hazardous.

'Expected to die?' Can you be a little more specific? I assume the
tree leafed out but they expect it to fall at the slightest provocation?

== 3 of 3 ==
Date: Thurs, May 22 2008 4:34 pm
From: ForestRuss@aol.com

Yes...the tree is leafing out but because of the fire damage it is expected
to fall at the slightest provocation.

It is truly a local tragedy.

Russ

== 8 of 9 ==
Date: Fri, May 23 2008 8:23 pm
From: "Edward Frank"

Russ,

I was not implying that these were your comments, My comment about pessimistic and paranoid was meant to characterize the WV parks stand on the sycamore.

I think around the country, that far too many magnificent and historical trees have been cut down as a result of people being overly worried about the tree falling. Many of these, if not most would have went on living happily for another hundred years or more if those responsible did not have these delusions of trees crushing everything in the vicinity. At the Webster Springs Sycamore, I understand that they have decided not to cut the tree down (at this point in time) and that is good, but to make the specimen inaccessible to the public is almost as bad.

I really doubt the tree is in imminent danger of falling at the slightest provocation. There seems to be little different structurally now than before the fire. If the tree had died and was a standing snag, rot and similar decay processes would have hastened its fall. But if it leafs out and is for the most part alive that gives hope for survival of the tree on a longer term.

The tree itself is not at the picnic area. There is a dirt road that runs past the tree on the opposite side of the creek. It goes to places other than the sycamore, so it probably won't be blocked. At the spot of the tree a foot bridge crosses the stream to a picnic area with a small shelter and a couple other benches. The tree itself is set back away from the picnic area by a short path. If it fell in an direction but directly toward the picnic area, it would not fall on anything but woods. If it fell directly toward the picnic area, I am not sure it would even reach it. The tree is 144 feet tall, and it was my impression it was farther away from the picnic area than that. I am not sure, it would need to be measured. If it did fall, it would most likely be during a severe thunderstorm or windstorm and it is unlikely that there would be anyone there in any case.

A magnificent tree like that deserves to be seen by the public. it is provided some notoriety to the local community. There is some traffic coming off the interstate to see the tree (or was). Closing the area to the public just seems to be a bad idea because of overly active imaginations on the part of the park managers. It would be an ideal place to display an informational sign about the arson and how it affected the tree and the local community. A chance to educate about the relationship between man ad the environment. I really see the risks as negligible and the benefits of keeping the park open many.

If there is someone with any influence with the WV Parks, I would encourage them to push for keeping the park open to the public and for them to take this as an educational opportunity to reach out to the public visiting the site. Maybe the base of the tree could be fenced off or something, but the picnic area should remain open. At least they could wait a summer and fall to see if the tree is still standing before deciding to block access to the site or doing anything else drastic.

Ed Frank

==============================================================================
TOPIC: The Big Sycamore at Webster Springs
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/8234496756174b57?hl=en
==============================================================================

== 1 of 2 ==
Date: Thurs, Aug 7 2008 7:48 pm
From: turner

ENTS: I just loaded a pdf adobe file which is an "Inspection" report
on the Great Webster Springs, WV Sycamore. The report was done shortly
after a fire was set and I thought many ENTS members might be
interested.
TS

fieldtrips/west_virginia/webster2008/big_sycamore.pdf

== 2 of 2 ==
Date: Thurs, Aug 7 2008 8:05 pm
From: "Edward Frank"

Turner,

Thanks for the upload. The report reflects the overly cautious nature of management considerations when facing the suit happy people of today and I do not feel it is a realistic assessment of the danger posed by the tree. I am sorry to see that tact taken in this regard.

Edward Frank

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