| Westfield
Massachusetts Gallery |
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The first of the three attached images taken by Gary Beluzo yesterday is of my son Rob climbing a newly discovered white oak (Rob spotted it) in a ravine in Westfield MA is a compelling spiderman image or atleast one that suggest arboreal roots for humans. The tree's statistics are Cir = 15.0 ft, Hgt=83.7 ft. We estimate the age at 250 years. It may be older. |
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The second image shows yours truyly stretching the yellow D-tape around the old oak tree. Hmmm, is there a song there? |
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The third image is of a gorgeous cottonwood in the wetland below the white oak. The tree's stats are Cir=12.1 ft, Hgt=114.4 ft. Credit for alerting Gary and I to this fine area of impressive cottonwoods and the one old white oak goes to Rob. Several other cottonwoods in the ravine are between 105 and 110 feet tall and 9 to 11 feet around. None of them slouches. Cottonwoods rule! |
| King
Cottonwood |
Robert
Leverett |
| Feb
07, 2005 07:02 PST |
ENTS:
Yesterday, Gary Beluzo, my son Rob,
and I headed to Westfield and the
Powder Mill Creek drainage. A number of large
cottonwoods grow in the
drainage. The largest we measured has meassurments as
follows: Cir=12.1
ft, Hgt=114.4 ft. Other large cottonwoods vary in
circumference from 9
to 11 feet and heights of 100 to 109 feet.
Rob spotted a large white oak on
the side of the ravine that looked
huge. It turned out to be large and very old. Its
measurements are
Cir=15.0 ft, Hgt=83.7 feet. It was open grown. Its side
limbs have been
shaded by the younger trees growing up around it and
have died back.
Altogether, we added 3 more
cottonwoods, the white oak, and
remeasured the huge Westfield sycamore. Gary's and my
measurements
meshed. It girth is 21.4 ft and the height is 106.4 ft.
Max spread is
105 ft.
Over the past several years of
tree documenting, the cottonwood has
emerged as the big deciduous tree of the valley regions
of western MA.
The sycamore gets larger, but its distribution is very
thin compared to
the cottonwood. The cottonwood rules.
Bob
Robert T. Leverett
Cofounder, Eastern Native Tree Society
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