| Surprises
and shedding biases |
Robert
Leverett |
| Feb
14, 2005 10:53 PST |
ENTS:
Since undertaking the ENTS mission
in the mid-1990s, surprises for
me have come fairly often. As I look back, oddly, some of my
surprises
have come after shedding prejudices - often subconsciously
acquired. For
example, I had downplayed the big tree role of the silver maple
in the
flood plain regions of southern New England. Why? Well, it was
partly
due to the influence of friends who didn't particularly like the
species. It lacked commercial value. While that kind of thinking
didn't
enter my conscious stream of thought, it did influence me
subconsciously. I wasn't supposed to like the silver maple
because it
wasn't like northern red oaks or white pines. It was a
"junk" species,
so I was subconsciously programming myself to simply ignore it.
Yes,
that was a silly mental process on my part, and completely my
own fault,
but I have no doubt that the bias influenced me to limit the
attention I
gave to the species in big tree searches. I think that I just
subconsciously wanted to give more credibility to the point of
view held
by my timber-wise friends who see trees largely through a timber
lens. I
subconsciously adopted their point of view.
Well, valuable or not from a
timber perspective, the silver maple
is one heck of a big tree species in the river valleys of
western
Massachusetts. Of the paltry 54 silver maples in my database, 26
have
circumferences of 12 feet or more and 32 are 100 ft tall or
more. The 26
big trees represent 48% of the total. To investigate the
significance of
the statistic, I first appealed to the sycamore. How does the
silver
maple compare to the sycamore - THE big tree of southern New
England? Of
the 82 sycamores in my database, 45 are over 12 feet in
circumference
for a percentage of 54%. Not too shabby - remembering that the
sycamore
is our largest hardwood in New England.
In terms of height, a total of 59%
of the silver maples in my
database are over 100 feet tall. This contrasts to a whopping
77% for
the sycamore. One can more easily find the combination of large
girth
and significant height in the sycamore, which is to be expected
for the
species. But sycamores have a very thin distribution relative to
silver
maple. The abundance of silver maple is vastly greater. So a
percentage
of 48% of trees in the 12-foot circumference class assures me
that there
are a lot of them out there, if I choose to look for them.
How does the silver maple compare to king cottonwood? For the
cottonwoods in my database (154 strong), only 18% are over 12
feet in
circumference. However, 90% are over 100 feet in height. Now to
relative
abundance. There are lots of river bank and flood plain
cottonwoods,
almost as many as there are silver maples. So, the above
percentages
suggest that if I keep searching for big and/or tall specimens,
I'll
encounter more 12-foot circumference silver maples than
cottonwoods. The
percentages may be dramatically different.
But what do these statistics really mean? Are they measures of
my
biases more than what grows out there in the bottomlands? First
off,
please let me re-emphasize that my searches zero in on
conspicuously
large and/or conspicuously tall trees. Obviously, I bypass
thousands of
trees that hold no interest for me. I AM only looking for the
superlatives, their absolute and relative abundances, to give me
a feel
for what a species can do in a region.
In the numbers above, I have
superficially compared three species
that grow in fairly similar habitats. But two are far more
common that
the third. If I go on searching for big trees in the flood
plains, will
the percentage domination of big silver maples over cottonwood
continue
and will the height domination of tall cottonwoods over silver
maples
likewise continue? I do believe that will be the case. As much
as I want
to find a legitimate 20-foot circumference cottonwood in my
backyard,
the odds are that I'll find a silver maple first.
What
is the prevailing perception of arborists, foresters,
ecologists, loggers, big tree hunters, forest historians, town
tree
wardens, etc. about the relative abundance of big silver maples
relative
to other species in southern New England? I really don't know.
George
Emerson's classic 1846 edition of "Trees and Shrubs of
Massachusetts"
leads one to believe that a 12-foot circumference silver maple
was a
rarity in the mid-1800s, if not an extreme rarity. Has the
silver maple
emerged to be the most dominant big tree in the flood plains of
the
southern Connecticut River? Was George Emerson looking for big
trees on
flood plains or mainly in the towns? How does the species fair
on the
southern reaches of the Hudson? Darned if I know, but intend to
find out
just as soon as I finish shedding my old biases. As for my new
bias,
silver maples rule. They're way cool.
Bob
Robert T. Leverett
Cofounder, Eastern Native Tree Society
|
| Hunting
for records and oddities |
dbhg-@comcast.net |
| Feb
21, 2005 04:49 PST |
ENTS:
As I write the FMTSF 2004
report to DCR, summarizing the research we have done in 2004, I
search for ways to present our discoveries and conclusions to
highlight the exemplary, the unusual, the startling. One bit of
tall tree trivia (TTT) that I realized is that the 151.5-foot
white ash in MTSF is the northern most 150-foot hardwood in the
Northeast. It is located at 42.626 degrees latitude north. The
two 150s in Zoar Valley (tulip at 156 and sycamore at 153)
appear to be around 42.5 degrees or slighltly less.
I wouldn't rule out a 150 slightly
farther north than the Mohawk tree in the Midwest, but so far
none has been confirmed by ENTS.
The Massachusetts team is chomping
at the bits to return to Trout Brook and confirm more soaring
ash trees. At the least, a couple more 140s would serve to
firmly establish MTSF as the center of tall tree development in
the Northeast for Fraxinus americana, at least until some New
York or Pennsylvania site challenges Mohawk's dominance. Will
that happen? Most likely. The Catskills are a gold mine for the
white ash. But for now, I can state with honesty in the 2004
report that outside of Mohawk, only two white ash trees have
been measured to over 140, the Kaaterskill Falls tree bagged by
Howard and the tree in Ice Glen.
Bob |
|