Poets Walk, NY    Robert Leverett   May 30, 2006 06:42 PDT  ENTS, On Saturday, Holly Post, Monica Jakuc, and I went to a site named the Poet’s Walk which is located on the Hudson River near Red Hook, NY. It was supposed to be a location harboring big trees. But, the area has clay based soils, so tree height is not conspicuous in locations that would otherwise grow tall trees. The RHI might go to 85 feet at Poets Walk, but 90 is not even a reasonable dream. However, species diversity at Poet’s Walk is fairly high. I identified 29 species of trees on a 2-mile roundtrip walk. Monica identified 20 species of birds and said she missed some. She identified 5 species of butterflies without even trying. But with respect to both fauna and flora, there were no surprises. While there wasn't anything to hoot about over either tree height or girth, there were very old chestnut oaks, white oaks, hemlocks, and black birches growing on the banks above the Hudson. In fact, the old white oaks appeared to be broadly scattered all over the property. I wouldn't flinch at ages in the 200 to 250 year age range and possibly some much older for isolated trees. The tree species list is as follows: N. red oak, swamp white oak, chestnut oak, white oak, American basswood, White ash, black birch, sugar maple, hop hornbeam, green ash, white pine, red maple, pitch pine, shagbark hickory, eastern red cedar, stahgorn sumac, black walnut (probably planted), black locust, pignut hickory, black cherry, witch hazel, dogwood, eastern hemlock, American elm, white birch, cucumber magnolia, American hornbeam, silver maple, and tuliptree. Absent from my list, but probably present on the property somewhere is American beech, black oak, and eastern cottonwood. I believe there are 32 or 33 species altogether on about 120 acres. Scattered throughout the meadows was a lot of poison ivy.     Despite the let down on tall trees, the views within and across the meadows of the property are first rate. One looks across the Hudson and to the dreamy Catskills beyond. The scene is one of exquisite beauty and it is abundantly clear to see what so inspired the Hudson River School of Art artists. I would return over and over to the Poets Walk for the views alone. It has that quality. I think Holly intends to do paintings of the area. On Sunday we visited the Pine Plains sycamore to begin the tree modeling process. Monica positioned herself at the base of the tree with her paper and read and communed. Holly took digital images and measured the great tree’s stature. I fiddled with measuring equipment, took some preliminary measurements, and quickly came to the realization that the complicated Pine Plains sycamore is going to take at least 3 more extended visits, and without a good sketch of the tree's architecture to identify what needs to be measured, what has been measured, and what needs to be re-measured, forget it. So, I switched gears and made a rough sketch of the trunk and big limbs and then resumed the measuring process. Later, Holly will make a more detailed, better scaled drawing. That assignment fits her well because she is an artist. BTW, Holly lives in historic Woodstock, NY, on the slope of the Catskills. Holly has plenty of relatives in Woodstock and she gave Monica and I a semi-grand tour on Sunday AM. It would have been a grand tour, but I was fidgety about getting to the Pine Plains sycamore. We got to the tree at 1:00PM, so there was plenty of time, had I been better prepared. I'll relate as much information as I gleaned from the first measuring exercise. Total height:                   114.7' (individual measurements range                                      from 114.0 to 115.2 ft) Girth at ground level:       28.0' Girth at 4.5 feet:              26.5' Girth at 6.3 feet:              27.3' (The monocular gave the equivalent of 26.7' at the point of observation. The huge tree is thicker at right angles to the above measurement. This will give rise to a second set of measurements at right angles to the first.) Average crown spread:    141.1' Maximum spread:          146.0' The point of separation of the limbs from the trunk where the limbs are clearly separate comes at approximately 12 feet above the base. At just below 12 feet where there is solid wood throughout, the diameter of the Pine Plains tree is over 10 feet. Probably 11. There are 5 huge limbs. The following information covers the measurements taken, plus an estimated one. Limb#    Girth Where 1              13.3 (at start) 2              11.0 (at start) 3               9.1 (at start. Limb broken off long ago. remainder about                         5 feet) 4              12.9 (about 5 feet above the point with trunk separation.                         Separation point not visible from vantage point) 5            Not measured (at least 12.5 feet) The limbs of this great tree repeatedly divide. At 19 feet, above the first major division, limb #1 is still 12.6 feet around. At 26 feet up, above a minor division, limb #4 is 11.7 feet around. There is a lot of wood in the Pine Plains sycamore. Just eye-balling the tree, my guess is that its total trunk-limb volume is between 2300 and 2800 cubic feet. I suppose it is possible that the total trunk-limb volume could go a little higher than the 2800, but I really don't think so from discussions with Will of what kinds of dimensions lead to 3000 cubes and more. My best guess at this point is 2400 cubes for the Pine Plains sycamore. Regardless, the Pine Plains Sycamore is one of the great Northeastern trees. And there are so many twists and turns and limb divisions that it challenges us to measure it. We will have to parse this tree into many parts and work on it limb at a time. I look very forward to developing an accurate model of the Pine Plains sycamore. Its rural setting is ideal. The road by the cornfield in which it sets is not busy. One does not have to contend with gawkers, traffic noises, etc. A big challenge in modeling huge, spreading trees altogether from the ground is that one must shift back and forth among multiple locations to get full visibility of each object being measured. The best plan is to first sketch the tree, decide on where to take measurements, and to number the points on the drawing. Then one simply chooses a target and sticks with it until it has been satisfactorily measured. The first target might be the lower trunk. There after, a short section of one limb to a point of separation is a logical next step. Areas of limb division are always problematic because of the changes in curvature and the changes in cross sectional form. Often there is a veritable explosion of limbs from a common point, with one or more limbs partially hidden. With all the variables to contend with, initially, it is easy to feel overwhelmed with the sheer magnitude of the measuring challenge. One is inclined to try to do too much at one time. A point worth emphasizing is that modeling huge spreading hardwoods is truly a world apart from modeling compact, columnar pines and hemlocks. If regular geometric shapes characterize forest-grown pines and hemlocks, the lack there of characterize the big spreading hardwoods. So, volume modeling of the big hardwoods can never be the province of simple log-oriented forest mensuration techniques that treat the object to be measured as a composite of simple forms that lend themselves to a quick averaging process. Therefore, the newly spawned ENTS applied branch of science that we'll call dendromorphometry is poles apart from forest mensuration. One cannot be substituted for the other. One is not a subset or superset of the other. Bob Robert T. Leverett Cofounder, Eastern Native Tree Society   Home