| Cross
sections on the rise |
Robert
Leverett |
| Dec
21, 2005 13:09 PST |
Will,
Jess, Don, Lee, John, Ed, et all:
From my 4th floor office window on the
Mercy Medical Center Campus
in Springfield, MA, I can look directly across to a gorgeous pin
oak
tree that is 80 yards away. It is 90.4 feet tall, has a CBH of
12.1
feet, branches at 23 feet above its base, and has a maximum
lateral
crown spread of an impressive 104 feet as determined from a
distance. I
suspect that the actual is between 95 and 100 feet. I'll confirm
that
tomorrow.
A level gaze from my chair brings
me to 45 feet or half way up the
tree - a perfect vertical vantage point. I can clearly see the
spread of
limbs in the morning (the tree is to my west) and I can count
most of
them since foliage no longer obscures vision. I think I can see
the
limbs through an arc of about 330 degrees. I'll inspect the
remaining
30%, or whatever it turns out to be, from the ground.
A novel thought occurred to me this morning.
With the RD 1000 I could
model the tree pretty thoroughly from my office, excepting limbs
in the
hidden 30%. I could calculate the total cross-sectional area of
wood at
different heights as a kind of profile. Staying with
cross-sectional
area at different heights would free me from trying to calculate
limb
lengths. Of course, the cross-sections wouldn't provide the
whole
picture and wouldn't yield volume, but the exercise would be
interesting.
So I plan to arrive at my office early
tomorrow AM and spend about an
hour taking measurements of the limbs at 45 foot level with the
RD 1000,
using its magnifier. If I'm successful tomorrow, on Friday, I'll
drop to
30 feet and do another cross-section. Next week, I'll do one at
60 feet.
I'll then model from 0 to 23 feet. No problems there. The
section
between 23 and 30 feet is the confusing area where the limbs
begin to
emerge until their separation is visibly distinct from my
vantage point.
I'll save that section for last. Any suggestions?
Lee, did you do anything like this when you
analyzed crown area in
your studies in the Porkies?
Bob
Robert T. Leverett
Cofounder, Eastern Native Tree Society
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