Sat and Sun   Robert Leverett
  May 21, 2007 08:19 PDT 

ENTS,

SATURDAY

BRUCE’S CEREMONY:

     On Saturday afternoon, we dedicated Bruce Kershner's tree in a
moving private ceremony in MTSF. Eight of Bruce's family members were
there. Fellow Ent and great friend Howard Stoner from the New York ENTS
contingent joined us. Bruce’s family was most appreciative of the
dedication. Finding Bruce's tree requires a precise knowledge of the
local terrain, so I'll likely be leading family members to the tree in
the future until they become comfortable with the way to get to the
tree. We will not be marking a path.

     Bruce's tree was formerly called the Northern Sentinel. It is the
northern most of Mohawk's 150s and until Saturday was the last of the
150s to be confirmed. Beyond the information given above, I will honor
the privacy of the ceremony for Bruce and conclude by saying, my
participation was a singular honor.

A NEW 150:

     Before the ceremony for Bruce, I went to the Elders Grove and did
some tree measuring and I am mightily pleased to report that a 12th pine
joins the list of 150s in the Elders Grove. The complete list of 150s
for the Elders Grove is as follows.


Height Girth DOM      Tag No TreeName Nation
165.23 11.44 13-Aug-06 154 Saheda         Mohawk
161.78 11.70 15-Apr-06 160 Tecumseh Shawnee
156.54 10.20 13-Aug-06 153 Sacajawea Shoshoni
153.00 9.10 10-Apr-05 161 Degonawida Huron
152.18 10.90 20-May-07 158 Dull Knife Cheyenne
151.88 11.00 26-Nov-06 155 Cochise         Apache
151.70 7.90 13-Aug-06 162 Ouray         Ute
151.32 10.10 20-May-07 165 Crazy Horse Lakota
151.04 9.00 13-Aug-06 164 Osceola         Seminole
150.87 10.80 13-Aug-06 158 Quannah Parker Comanche
150.63 9.50 13-Aug-06 152 Washakie Shoshoni
150.16 8.20 20-May-07 163 Chief Joseph Nez perce

       There are more pines in the Elders Grove to dedicate to Native
Americans, but the above list includes all the 150s. In a couple of
years there may be another 150-class pine, but for the present, we'll
have to settle for an even dozen. In a future e-mail, I'll share my
reasons for selecting the above Native Americans to honor. There are
many worthy Native elders who have past and the choice of the above may
seem arbitrary, and to a degree, it is, but there are good reasons
behind the choices.

      The addition of Chief Joseph's tree to the Elder's Grove 150s
gives MTSF a total of 83 white pines and 2 white ash trees that reach
the magic threshold of 150 feet. The grand total is 85 Mohawk
150-footers. In terms of Massachusetts as a whole, there are 94 great
whites over 150 and 96 trees of all species over 150. In terms of other
species in Massachusetts, my hope of finding a tuliptree in this height
class has faded. I just don’t think one is out there. For New England as
a whole, southern Connecticut may have a few. There are probably a
number of sites in New York with tulips pushing the 150-foot height
threshold, although to date, we have only found 2.

A RESPECTIBLE NORTHERN RED:

      On the way to the Elders Grove, I passed by a handsome northern
red oak that I routinely walk by on visits to Clark Ridge via the main
nature trail. This time I happened to look up just at the right spot and
noticed that the oak looked taller that I customarily notice, more than
the 104 feet that I think I measured it to previously. Taking a little
time, I found a sprig at 114.2 feet, confirming my perception. The oak's
girth is a modest 6.9 feet, so it is pleasing to look at but not
overpowering. Pleasing but not overpowering is the norm for the Mohawk
trees. The slender red oak becomes the 24th of its species in MTSF to be
measured to 114 feet or more. To be sure, there are others to find,
probably quite a few, but widely scattered. There are many red oaks over
100 feet, but the density of oaks above 110 drops rapidly, and oaks
above 120 are encountered only infrequently – one here, one there. In
fact, to this point, only 11 have been confirmed to over 120, 4 of which
exceed 130 feet. Around 130 feet seems to be the limit that the species
can reach in Mohawk. The same is true for sugar maple. Although, I have
not given up hope entirely, either a northern red oak or a sugar maple
reaching 140 is highly unlikely in Mohawk. Some kind of physical limit
seems to be reached just over 130 – probably the interplay if several
environmental factors. By contrast, 25 white ash trees have been
confirmed to 140 feet or more in Mohawk, 2 of which exceed 150. A total
of 68 have been measured to 130 feet or more, and in places, 120s are
fairly common, with 110 of them having been measured to the 120
threshold to date. As I have reported before, the white ash is the
tallest hardwood in Massachusetts although in the Connecticut River
Valley areas where it competes with the tuliptree, the latter usually
wins. The ash does best in low elevation coves and ravines and along
stream corridors in the Berkshires. Its performance in the broad river
valleys trails its performance in the mountains.

MUSINGS ON MOHAWK’S RUCKER INDEX:

      The sad occasion of Saturday not withstanding, it was good to
reconnect to Mohawk’s abundance of tall trees ands I know that from his
spiritual perch, Bruce heartily approved of my unbridled enthusiasm for
the new member of the 150 Club. The Rucker index of Mohawk stands at
136.2, and short of really substantive tree growth this season, the
index is not likely to rise by more than one or two tenths of a point.
I’ll be ecstatic if it makes 136.5 by late summer. In terms of
individual performances, I’m counting on the Jake Swamp pine to exceed
169 feet this season. Barring disaster, the October 2008 Forest Summit
should include a cozy “170-foot party” for Jake.

SUNDAY

     John Knuerr and I began work on Tsuga Search for MTSF by looking at
hemlocks in the Trout Brook area. In the process, we confirmed two new
120-foot class hemlocks, which really sweetened the day: (125.3, 9.1)
and (124.8, 7.3). These trees help the iterated Rucker index. The number
of iterations of the MTSF Rucker index at 125 or more now stands at 11.
The number of iterations of the index that reach 120 or more now stands
at 20. That is way cool.

OTHER MUSINGS:

       Is all the ENTS fanfare for tall trees really necessary? Does it
matter if the Jake Swamp pine makes 169 feet this season, that there are
such and such a number of trees meeting this or that height or diameter
threshold, that we gradually, but surely, are closing in on profiling
the maximum height of a species over its latitude range, that we can
measure tree heights to under +/- 1 foot of absolute accuracy? Does ENTS
further any worthy objectives or promote any useful values by all the
measuring and comparing hoopla that we do? Well, it is my unbiased and
humble judgment that we do further worthy objectives and promote useful
values by practicing and promoting our unusual craft. For one thing, we
build the public’s knowledge of what is common versus what is rare or
exceptional and that accomplishment has served to activate the
protection gene in more than a few receptive people. By contrast,
widespread public ignorance provides a one-way ticket to habitat,
species, and tree loss. Public ignorance as to what is exceptional
versus run of the mill gives the scalawags among us free reign to
exploit. As an example, before the ENTS promotion of Mohawk’s splendid
trees and accompanying deluge of data, MTSF was an attractive state
timber resource with some collocated recreational features. The timber
would currently be being exploited under green certification. That is
virtually guaranteed. Prior to the formation of FMTSF and later ENTS,
the upper echelons of management of the Department of Recreation, and
more specifically, the State Bureau of Forestry were largely oblivious
to: (1) the historical significance of the historic Mohawk Trail within
the boundaries of MTSF, (2) the surprising status and uniqueness of the
Mohawk pines, (3) the growth performance of the pines (an unusual
situation for a forestry department), and (4) the wealth of
opportunities to turn Mohawk Trail State Forest into the Commonwealth’s
forest icon and a source of pride for the citizens of the bay state. I
can’t say that the mindset of DCR has changed completely, but most of
the key players are very cautious when dealing with MTSF and managers
seem to understand that Mohawk has some kind of forest significance
beyond that possessed by other DCR properties and they turn to FMTSF and
ENTS to provide the interpretation.

Bob         

Robert T. Leverett
Cofounder, Eastern Native Tree Society