For the past few weeks at work, we've been working on a project for
Amherst College/Amherst Historic Society removing a "hedge" of
Hemlocks along approximately a 1/4 mile of Main St. in Amherst center.
From some info I gathered, and a few ring counts by outside
contractors, the trees ranged from 110-150+ years old. Most ranged
from 6 to 24" in diameter at the root flare, and the vast majority
being probably in the 45-60' range. Took us 8 full work days to remove
the approximately 200+ Hemlocks, a single large Norway Maple, Black
Walnut, and a decent sized White Pine.

This is all part of an effort to reconstruct the look of the mid
1800's Emily Dickinson house/museum in Amherst center. There will be a
picket fence installed the length of the road frontage, and another
hedge of Hemlocks replanted. Many of the existing trees were infected
with what I seem to recall being called "long needle hemlock scale" or
something to that effect.

What was really surprising were the trees in the yard that were
previously hidden from passerby's view that are now fully visible. I
went back yesterday to measure a few of them. There are a few
impressive pines in the yard, not solely due to height or girth, but
the utter lack of taper the trunks have. I didnt measure them (was
running out of minutes in the parking meter!) but guesstimate them to
be in the 10-11' circumference range, and both probably 110-120' tall.
They carry the circumference at breast height likely nearly to the
top, where they both appear to have lost tops in the not so recent
past. Really beefy looking trees. What I really went for was a
beautiful white oak, and the one stand out Tuliptree in amongst a
small stand of them.

The tulips are many in this neighborhood, which I never realized until
spending the time down here working. The largest I could pick out was
11.3' in circumference, and came out to 123.4' in height. Cant wait to
see all the trees to be leafing out again.....

The White oak was impressive. 13.3' CBH, at 73.3' in height, and took
my first real rough branch spread. This tree measures out to roughly
114' at its widest branch spread. Beautiful tree....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/jlacoy82/Whiteoaktrunk.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/jlacoy82/Whiteoakwhole.jpg

I then took my "lovely assistant" over to Mt. Holyoke college in S.
Hadley, MA, where the entire campus has been declared an arboretum for
years now. Was fairly brisk and windy out, so took a quick walk around
part of the campus to show her a few of the real standouts for big
trees.

One of my favorites on campus is this Dawn Redwood. I didnt want to go
raising any eyebrows, so didnt bother with the task of snaking the
tape around the trunk for a measurement, but instead got the height
and a few pictures. 79' in height, and just an awesome looking
trunk....

The picture of the full tree includes a weeping cedar of lebanon in
the foreground....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/jlacoy82/Redwoodtrunk.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/jlacoy82/Redwoodbranch.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/jlacoy82/Redwoodwhole.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/jlacoy82/Redwoodflower.jpg

Also stumbled across an impressive trunked Red Oak, at 15.5' x 87.2'.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/jlacoy82/Redoaktrunk.jpg

And one of the larger Sweetgums I've found in the area, only one
larger that I've seen so far, that I guesstimate to be in the high
60's or low 70's in height. This one on campus in particular measuring
out to 5.2' CBH and 51.5' tall.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/jlacoy82/Sweetgumwhole.jpg

The larger Gum is in a yard in Amherst, and may wait till spring and
see if I can get permission to measure it from the owners.

Thats been it for this week......hope you folks enjoyed yourselves in
SC!

Jeff