ENTS Moot 2008

ENTS Moot 2008

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TOPIC: ENTS Moot
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/2cc2224f3321a714?hl=en
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== 1 of 2 ==
Date: Mon, Apr 21 2008 7:36 pm
From: "Edward Frank"

ENTS,

I attended the recent ENTS Moot in Black Mountain, NC held from April 18 to 20, 2008. I gave an account of part of my trip to the get-together in a previous post, and will detail other aspects in future posts. For now I wanted to give my general impressions of the events of the weekend.

April 19, 2008., I had camped overnight at Shenandoah National Park at the Lewis Mountain Campground. After waking I headed southward toward the meet. I started about midway through the north to south running park, and had about 60 miles to go before leaving Shenandoah. It was a beautiful day. I stopped at a number of overlooks and took photos. For Gary Beluzo's information at an elevation of about 3000 feet near mile marker 95 I saw the first leaf outs of tuliptrees. Most of the park was still in late winter stage. I did not fully realize that until I descended from the mountains to grab a bite to eat in Rockfish, VA. As I dropped in elevation the flowers were blooming more fully, and more of the trees had leafed out. After leaving Rockfish I headed back to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I wanted to catch a little more of the mountains before completing the journey south. I followed the winding road on the ridgetop for about 40 more miles before descending at cutting over to I-81. I wanted to get to lack Mountain before nightfall, and the Blue Ridge Parkway is 382 miles of winding road just to reach Ashville, NC. All was not a loss along the interstate. The redbuds were in full bloom along the highway providing a brilliant splash of violet-pink color to usher me along the roadway.

I arrived before nightfall and pulled into the large cabin we were renting for the weekend. There were many people there I had not seen for awhile, there were people I knew from the newsgroup and with whom I had corresponded but never met, and there were a few strangers. I was met by Will Blozan, Carl Harting, Anthony Kelly, and Bob Leveret as I pulled in. other people I new included Monica Leverett, and Bob Van pelt. BVP was cooking burgers and offered me one immediately. Heidi, (Will's partner) and the two kids were present. I remembered Heidi, sort of from a previous trip she had made to Cook Forest. Also there were Larry Tucie, James Parton, and his new wife Joy Parton. These were people I had not met previously, but recognized from their photos. I probably correspond more with Larry and James than I do with anyone else on the ENTS list. As I downed my burger I told people of my finding of old growth oak forest at Shenandoah National Park, the fate of the hemlocks at the Limberlost section, and some general grousing about my work schedule. Someone I did not know, and had never corresponded with ask me if my bosses knew was so anal. I pretended to blow it off at the time, but it really upset me. ... I bothered me all weekend.

I am always nervous about attending these types of functions. I am uncomfortable around groups of people in a social setting, even when I know them. I wanted to come down to meet some of the people had been writing to, but never actually met, but still gatherings like this really bother me. There is a TV show called Dexter. The protagonist says he doesn't really know what it is like to be normal, so he makes an effort to pretend. I feel like that to some degree. I enjoy talking to people individually and finding out what they have been up to. I like to see the slides of what they have done. But the group setting intimidates me. One of the most interesting characters on Star Trek: the Next Generation, played by Dwight Schultz , was Reginald Barkley. He was a smart, creative, young officer that had things to contribute, but could not seem to get over the problems he had communicating with others. I can empathize wit this character greatly.

Some activities had already taken place. Bob Van Pelt had come in from Washington so that he and Will could do a 3-D map and Volume of the Usis hemlock. They spent two days in the tree without completing the project. On Friday Will led a group to McKee Branch in GSMNP looking for big hemlocks and trees. I will leave it to the participants to provide details of these trips. After eating and general conversations between everyone, we looked at a few impromptu slide presentations of the Usis, McKee Branch, and BVP showed his models of the Middleton Oak and Sag Branch Tuliptree.

Bob and Monica Leverett, at Baxter Creek

Saturday morning found one trip off to the Pine Flats area of the Smokies. I stayed behind because of my persistent bronchitis, but was saved by an invitation to join Bob and Monica on a low stress hike to Baxter Creek area of the Smokies looking for wildflowers and the Rucker Tuliptree. I have been encouraging Monica to post about the trip so I will await her post.

Bob and Monica Levertt at the base of the Rucker Tulip Tree

We all arrived back at the cabin in the evening. Bob Van Pelt made a salmon pasta that was delicious and a salad for supper. Again we had some general conversations before watching slides. One of the neat things was that David Huff showed us some unedited high definition footage of an aerial flyover of the dead hemlocks in Great Smokey Mountains National Park shot as part of the Vanishing Hemlock documentary http://www.thevanishinghemlock.com/

I really enjoyed meeting Larry Tucie, our man in the south and maestro of Live Oaks. With the loss of two massive limbs on the Middleton oak a couple weeks ago, it lost about 1/3 of its volume and likely has lost its place as the largest Live Oak. James Parton was the second person really wanted to meet and talk to at the gathering. I look for major contributions in measuring from him in the coming months. Bob Van Pelt is always great to talk to. He discussed his adventures and research, showed some great slides. One thing to appreciate about Bob is that even though he is climbing and working in the biggest trees in the world that are upwards of 3,000 years old, he still appreciates a small patch of stunted old growth oak a couple hundred years old.

3/4 of the Pennsylvania A-Team

Sunday morning the group began to spit up. Some people had to head for home. Some of the others went to the Biltmore Estate to look for big trees on the grounds. I wanted to head back and catch a few more details at Shenandoah National Park, so I was one of the people to depart. Before leaving Anthony Kelly, Carl Harting and I posed in front of my van for a 3/4 of the Pennsylvania A-Team photo. I will need to Photoshop Dale Luthringer into the photo to complete the team. I headed out and headed north. When I arrived at the intersection of 77 and 81 in Virginia it was raining and cold and miserable, so I abandoned the return trip to Shenandoah, and headed for home. Along the way I stopped at the New River Gorge Bridge in WV and at the Webster Springs Sycamore, set afire by arsonists last autumn. I will report on these later.

Edward Frank

== 2 of 2 ==
Date: Mon, Apr 21 2008 8:52 pm
From: James Parton

Ed,

I know how you feel being a sort of shy person who generally avoids
crowds. That has generally been myself for most of my life. I do much
better around people now than I once did. I guess working around the
public for so many years has loosened me up. I still avoid loud rowdy
crowds and drunks. Being reclusive often makes you notice things in
the woods that other less attentive people miss. Be yourself and be
proud of it!

I really enjoyed meeting you and enjoyed the pictures of your trip by
Shenandoah that you showed me. I mentioned to a couple of other people
at the gathering of how well a job that you do on the Webpage but
forsee you getting overloaded as ENTS continues to grow. Your efforts
should be commended.

Ed, Joy said it was a pleasure meeting you and says a warm " hello ".

James P.

DSCN0062a.JPG (94145 bytes)

Dale,

Anthony had a nice gold necklace and dangly on in the photo. Now to see how to add Dale to the photo...

Ed

== 2 of 2 ==
Date: Wed, Apr 23 2008 8:58 pm
From: "Dale Luthringer"

Okay,

I see the necklace now, my bust. He still doesn't have a Mohawk, but he
did show a good BA facial. Alright, we'll let him off easy on the EMI.
we'll let him use his bug net when he's out there on the islands.

'The Colonel'

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