| New
Members |
Robert
Leverett |
| Apr
05, 2004 08:25 PDT |
ENTS:
We should periodically welcome our new members
to the list. So here
goes. WELCOME, NEW MEMBERS!
Our list membership currently stands at 94.
Over the past several
months, a few people have dropped off, so the current total of
94
reflects a larger number of new members than might otherwise be
recognized. We have a permanent base of about 75 – 80 members.
For our newest members who haven’t
gotten our sales pitch yet, the
best way to understand who we are and what we do is to visit our
website
http://www.nativetreesociety.org
which is hosted at the University of
Arkansas.
Ed Frank is our web-master, and a darn good one. He rescued our
moribund
website and has made it of exceptional quality. Ed embodies the
spirit
that unites us in our common cause. If you see a need and nobody
is
addressing it, take the bull by the horns.
The range of topics we discuss in
ENTS is fairly broad. However,
our bread and butter mission has been to hunt, measure, map,
document,
defend, and publish descriptions of what we call the eastern
“forest
icons”. In fulfillment of this mission, we engineer better
techniques to
accurately measure our quarry. There are about 10 of us who are
fanatics
over tree measuring and we often dominate the list. It’s our
enthusiasm,
our passion, not our desire to shut others out, that leads to
the
veritable explosion of e-mails with numbers. Forgive us, but we
can’t
help ourselves. One of our most intense members is mathematician
John
Eichholz who has taken to photographing the canopy of key trees
and he
draws pictures of the different twigs that may be the targets of
laser
beams in casual use of the laser-clinometer pair. John is taking
us to
the next level of sophistication in obtaining more accurate
ground-based
measurements using relatively inexpensive equipment. Others have
delivered yeoman service trekking the countryside in search of
new hot
spots and are compiling an impressive list of sites that tell
the story
of species potential. In the Northeast, the honor of the most
intense
Ents goes to naturalist Dale Luthringer at Cook Forest State
Park, PA.
Dale is an X-marine and indefatigable in his pursuit of his
quarry. Of
course, Will Blozan, our president is legendary.
Speaking of Will, ENTS has a world-class
group of arborists who
climb the great trees and tape them. Will Blozan president has
climbed
the tallest or almost tallest accurately measured trees in North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts,
and New
Hampshire. Michael Davie, Ed Coyle, and Brian Hinshaw are other
climbers. Mike has many accomplishments to his credit. On
occasion Dr.
Robert Van Pelt comes east from Washington State to join the
group. The
recent mapping of the Middleton live oak and the Sag Branch
tuliptree
exemplify the best of ENTS.
When it comes to the pure science, Dr.
Lee Frelich, the ENTS vice
president, has the last word. This doesn’t take anything away
from the
other excellent scientists on the list, but Lee has research
interests
that utilize the data we collect and he establishes our research
protocols when we need to get down and dirty. Dr. Tom Diggins
isn’t far
behind. He holds up the central Mid-western arm of ENTS in terms
of
science. Actual he shares this role with scientist, author, and
activisit Bruce Kershner, another great Ent.
In the Northeast, Professor Gary Beluzo
is one of the group we call
the Tree Amigos and our GIS guru. Gary will take us to the next
level of
spatial stand documentation. There is much to do in the area of
mapping
and analysis GIS-style and we look to Gary to perfect the
methods and
establish the documentation protocols to best utilize GIS. We
can expect
to hear a lot more from Gary in the future.
We flirt around with the political
issues from time to time and some
of us come close to getting ourselves into trouble, but then we
re-center ourselves when contentious subjects threaten to
scatter us and
cause us to forget that we’re all a family. The operative
state of mind
is for us to respect our fellow Ents and allow for diversity of
opinion.
All in all, I think we do a pretty good job of that. It is
natural for
some of us to test the waters from time to time.
For anyone coming in from the
outside trying to understand what is
common to Ents is our shared respect for forests and trees along
several
lines of thought and action – ecological, historical,
cultural,
medicinal, aesthetic, scientific, artistic, and to an extent
utilitarian. The latter line gets us into discussions about
forest
management practices, and Boy, do we have the Northeast’s guru
on that
subject. We’re pleased to claim as one of our own none other
than
private consulting forester Joseph Zorzin, who also goes by
Rasputin
Zorzinovitch, the Madman, and other handles. Besides Joe, there
are a
number of excellent foresters on the list, some in government,
some
private consultants, and some researchers. If there are any
industrial
foresters on the list, they haven’t identified themselves. If
there are,
they are most welcome. If they share the common interests
identified
above, then they are Ents. Incidentally, when I use the term ENT,
that
is the abbreviation for Eastern Native Tree Society. When I use
Ent, I
do so in the Tolkien context. An Ent is a forest being.
For all members of the list,
I should also mention that we have
some prominent Native Americans among members. In particular,
Ishgooda
and Sky Davis are members of our list. Ishgooda is Huron and Sky
is
Cherokee. Both are activists and were close friends of my dear
departed
wife Jani who was also a Native American. Through Jani, the
philosophy
and roots of ENTS incorporates Native thought toward the land
and its
forests and ENTS honors Native American culture and traditions
in a
variety of ways. In Mohawk Trail State Forest in Massachusetts,
Cook
Forest State Park in PA, the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park, NC-TN,
and elsewhere, we name trees and groves after Native Americans.
This
practice has taken on a life of its own in Mohawk as a recent
e-mail
identifying groves named for Native nations shows. The following
list
identifies great trees currently bearing Native names,
individual or
tribal, courtesy of ENTS. The list is organized by
property/site. Others
will be named in the near future.
Great Smoky Mountains NP, NC-TN:
Yonaguska Tree – hemlock (Cherokee)
Tsali Tree – hemlock (Cherokee)
Sequoyah Tree – hemlock
(Cherokee)
Cook Forest State Park, PA:
Jani Tree – white pine
(Choctaw-Cherokee)
Seneca Pine – white pine
(Seneca)
Anders Run Natural Area, PA:
Cornplanter Pine - white pine (Seneca)
Ice Glen, MA
Mohican Pine – white pine (Mohican)
Mohawk Trail State Forest, MA
Trees of Peace:
Jake Swamp Tree -
White pine (Mohawk)
Joe Norton- White pine
(Mohawk)
Tom Porter - White
pine (Mohawk)
John Brown – White
pine (Narragansett)
Arvol Lookinghorse –
White pine (Lakota)
Dave Chief – White
pine (Lakota)
Algonquin Grove:
Frank Decontie Tree –
White pine (Algonquin)
William Commanda Tree –
White pine (Algonquin)
Sandra Decontie Tree
– White pine (Algonquin)
Cherokee-Choctaw:
Jani Tree – White
pine (Choctaw-Cherokee)
Charles Yow Tree –
White pine (Cherokee)
Junaluska Pine –
White pine (Cherokee)
Attakulakula Tree –
White pine (Cherokee)
Pocumtuck Grove:
Metacomet Tree –
White pine (Wampanoag)
Massasoit Tree –
White pine (Wampanoag)
Frank James Tree –
White pine (Wampanoag)
Elders Grove:
Saheda Tree –
White pine (Mohawk)
Tecumseh Pine
– White pine (Mohawk)
Crazy Horse Tree
– White pine (Lakota)
Sacajawea Tree
– White pine (Shoshoni)
Washaki Tree -
– White pine (Shoshoni)
Shunpike Grove:
Joseph Brant Pine –
White pine (Mohawk)
Oneida Pine – White
pine (Oneida)
We have a Memorial Grove in Mohawk Trail State
Forest that honors
deceased Earth warriors. Presently we have trees dedicated to
Michael
Perlman and Karl Davies. On May 15th we’ll add a couple of
names
including a dedication to Randy Cyr’s father.
We also now have an ENTS grove that is
part of the larger region of
Encampment Pines. Currently trees have been dedicated to the
following
Ents:
Will Blozan
Lee Frelich
Colby Rucker
Dale Luthringer
Michael Davie
Loona Brogan
(surprise, Loona)
Lisa Bozzuto
(surprise, Lisa)
Susan Benoit
(surprise, Susan)
Howard Stoner
(surprise, Howard)
Others in Mohawk Trail State Forest who have been honored
include:
Dr. Lynn Rogers:
in the Trees of Peace Grove
Chuck Bellows:
in the Pocumtuck Grove
Paul Jost: (also
ENTS, but he has a tree in the Pocumtuck Grove)
John Knuerr (N.
red oak)
There are a number of other named trees in the Smokies and
elsewhere
including the Boogerman Pine in Cataloochee, the Riddle Pine in
the
Chattahoochee NF, GA, and so on.
Enough for now.
Bob
Robert T. Leverett
Cofounder, Eastern Native Tree Society
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