ENTS,

Back in January 2005 I moved in with a close friend after my wife left
me. He lives right across from the 50 acre Kellogg Center which has
some nice trails through meadows and white pine forests. These forests
served as a retreat from the dispair I was in at the time. A place to
get away and be alone. A place to collect my thoughts a bit. Now, four
years later I am remarried and in much better mental shape. But I have
not forgotten how much this forest has helped me. I remember that
every time I visit the place. I guess this is among my most special of
places.

A little over a year ago I invited Will Blozan to visit the place with
me in tow to get a really detailed look at the forest. We were not
disappointed. The pines were impressive.

http://www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/north_carolina/kellogg/ke...

And here is another later post on the site.

http://www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/north_carolina/kelloggcc/...

Today I returned to Kellogg and found a new parking lot off of South
Rugby Rd enabling easy trail access 7 days a week. I measured a nice
Honeylocust there. Walking down the hill I noticed that some trees had
been cleared from the forest on the right. Upon entering the forest my
heart sank. Tears came to my eyes. A few tens of yards on the right
side of the Rudnick Woodland Nature Trail the forest had been
decimated. Most of the trees had been cut. Will can probably remember
walking across a log looking at the forest on the other side of a
ditch. That forest is now gone with only a few scattered standing
trees left. This amounts to several acres. Fortunatly the big white
pines near the trail are still standing as is a big pitch pine I
measured there last year. Most of the woods cut were small and mid-
sized trees. I feared they had reached the big pine grove Will and I
visited a year ago. Will had commented on that grove saying it would
be really impressive given more time and that in another century it
would be a forest of giants. Walking up the trail I found that the
majority of the grove was still intact and standing. I can only hope
it stays that way. My guess is that UNCA has sold some of the property
to developers and another subdivision is going up. All I can do is
shake my head. All the trees on the trails left are fine.

Here is some trees I measured today. Two notibles are a huge pitch
pine and the huge field white pine that Will girth measured. I have
named that huge pine the " Octopus ". It resembles a downward swimming
octopus with at least 8 " tentacles ", huge upward growing limbs
growing from a very short stubby " body " that is of course the trunk.
I had guessed the tree at about 80 feet tall but it measured out to be
a surprising 104.3 feet tall. I measured the apparently single trunk
only about a foot above the ground since the limbs branch out very
low. It is an impressive 15' 8" cbh!  Bob Leverett, what do you
think??

I found many cut stumps in the cut section of the forest but most were
cut so roughly or had so much sap on them that I could not count the
rings accurately. I found one decent one that was 1' 5" in diameter
with 49 growth rings. I still speculate on the ages of those big
pines. Will guessed the big ones maxing out at about 120 years. I
think they still might be a little older.

Here is the measurements for today. I stopped by here after visiting
Clay and did not have my camera with me.

Honey Locust     8' 5" cbh!        85.5 feet tall.

Pitch Pine          7' 2" cbh         96 feet tall.

Pitch Pine          6' 10" cbh       111.4 feet tall.

American Holly   2' 2 1/4" cbh    40.3 feet tall.

Pitch Pine          8' 0" cbh!        103 feet tall.

White Pine         11' 0" cbh!      125 feet tall *

White Pine        15' 8" cbh!!       104.3 feet tall. ( Huge
reiterations from very short stubby main trunk )

Red Cedar         4' 11" cbh        58.9 feet tall.

* I could not quite find the top. This is the highest point I could
see.

James Parton