Welcome to new members and other stuff    Robert Leverett
   Jan 17, 2005 06:14 PST 

ENTS:

...

      A few more words on our Bartholomew mission of yesterday. The huge
Bartholomew cottonwood generates 2425 ENTS points. The "official" state
champion in Pittsfield beats the Bartholomew tree by 5 points.
Officially they are co-champions. The ENTS points for the Pittsfield are
2025. The Pittsfield tree has probably lost a little crown, but I doubt
it has ever been 100 feet in height. It's current dimensions are 86.9
feet tall by 23.3 feet around. So at its maximum height, it would have
been thinner, so its point accumulation probably never exceeded 2100 or
2200 at the extreme.

   The two huge cottonwoods present us with a testing ground for the two
systems for judging overall size. Using circumference in feet by height
in feet to generate one point total as opposed to the AF formula
generating another provides expereinced Ents with an opportunity to make
comparisons of individual trees that we know intimately. The following
table shows three great sycamores in the Northeast, their AF points, and
their ENTS points. Will Blozan, Bob Van Pelt, and yours truly have all
seen and measured these trees. The measurements of the Pinchot and
Sunderland trees are more recent. They are Will Blozan's measurements.

Tree            State   ENTS Pts   AF Pts
Pinchot         CT     2718.6       465.0
Pine Plains     NY    2992.0       461.1
Sunderland    MA    2848.6         448

   Their individual shapes are sufficiently different to make it
difficult to visually compare them. However, I am inclined to rank them
more by the ENTS point system. Either way it is a close call.

   In the not too distant future, maybe we can pay the Pine Plains tree
a new visit and take updated measurements, get new digital images of the
three trees and post images and measurements to the website and have a
good general discussion of different approaches to ranking the three
equally great trees. Perhaps drawing attention to a well-intentioned
competition between the three can get ENTS some media attention.

I suspect that the Pine Plains tree has grown enough to push it up to
roughly the same as the Pinchot tree in total AF points and push the
ENTS points to maybe 3000. The possibility is indeed exciting. So that
possibility makes a visit back to Pine Plains even more important.

   Short of Bob Van Pelt, Will Blozan, and team coming out and measuring
the three for volume via Bob's protocals, we'll never know for sure, but
we can have a heck of a good time debating the subject of which tree is
the most voluminous.

Bob


      

Robert T. Leverett
Cofounder, Eastern Native Tree Society

Re: The 3 great sycamores   dbhg-@comcast.net
  Jan 17, 2005 19:23 PST 
Ed:

Ents big tree points is circumference in feet times height in feet. The desirable feature is that both dimensions are in the same units. The AF formula is circumference in inches + height in feet + 1/4 the average crown spread in feet.
Bob

RE: The 3 great sycamores   grea-@library.umass.edu
  Jan 17, 2005 14:29 PST 

Bob,

How does the South Deerfield sycamore in front of Deerfield Academy
measure up? Is it in the top ten, or is it too far down the scale to even
mention?

-Ken
RE: The 3 great sycamores   dbhg-@comcast.net
  Jan 17, 2005 19:11 PST 
Ken:

The Old Deerfield sycamore, the Pocumtuck Buttonwood is one of the great sycamores of New England. It is not far behind the others. More on it later.
Bob