Spring 2011 Latest Tree News
(You Can Scroll Down To See Older Updates)
6-15-2011
New Tall Douglas Fir Of SW Oregon
My ENTS BBS posting on 6-15-2011
06-04-11
SW Oregon Bushwhack hits paydirt
Extremely tall trees found during Southern Oregon Expedition. Confirmed 8th, 4th and 2nd tallest known douglas fir trees
I recently organized an expedition into Southern Oregon to search for tall trees. The group included explorers Mario Vaden & Mike Hanuschik. Also in the group was ace tree measurer, Chris Atkins. On the 2nd day we re-measured the new world height champion ponderosa, "Phalanx". Chris used his 4x Impulse200LR with heavy weight tripod and prism. His measurement was 268.73 ft (81.9m). Both Chris and I are confident a climber deployed tape-line will get nearly identical results. On the same day we found another 250 ft class ponderosa. We also had a chance to pay visit to the new Oregon AFA state champion ponderosa. Stats on the new champion are 254' tall, 7.1' dbh and an average crown spread of 54 ft for a total of 535 AFA points. The brokenn top 166' tall La Pine Giant of Oregon's Dechutes River now scores 519 AFA points despite its enormous 9.1 diameter at breast height.
On the last day of the expedition, we found and measured 3 extremely tall douglas fir in Coos County, SW Oregon. The tallest was 322.5' (98.3 m) with a diameter of 8.6' (2.62 m). This tree is now the tallest known live top douglas fir. The other two tall douglas fir were found to be 317.58 ft (96.79 m) & 309.3 ft (94.27 m). These trees were found the Alder Creek and Park Creek watersheds respectively and both trees have live tops as well. The eventual dethroning of both Brummett Fir and Centurion now appears imminent. When will the next Landmarkt Trees update announce this discovery ?
Left: 2nd tallest known douglas fir, 322.5' tall with Michael Taylor-left, Chris Atkins-center and Mike Hanuschik-right. Center: Top of 322.5 douglas fir. Right: 6'3" Mike Hanushchik underneath the 7.1' dbh, 254' tall Oregon champion ponderosa. Photographs of 322.5 douglas fir are by Mario Vaden.
05-06-11
New Eastern United States Height Champion
Eastern Native Tree Society announces new discovery of 191.9 ft (58.5 m) tuliptree in North Carolina. New Height Record
Will Bloznan, Co-Founder of the Eastern Native Trees Society, has announced the discovery of the tallest tree East of the Mississippi River, a tuliptree (liriodendron). This is the first tuliptree ever accurately measured to exceed 190 ft (57.9 m). This temperate broadleaf easily beats the former height champion, the tallest known eastern white pine, the "Boogerman Pine" at 188.9 ft (57.6 m). This may be surprising to the experts because this softwood conifer is generally considered the Eastern United State's tallest tree species. The "Boogerman Pine" once stood 207 ft tall, but lost its top during a storm. This 191.9 ft tuliptree grows in a cove deep in the Smokey Mountain Wilderness of North Carolina and far away from any trail. The bole of champion tuliptree is branchless to nearly 100 ft. Will also report at least 1 dozen other tuliptrees in the same wilderness area that are over 180 ft tall, some younger and much smaller than the 191.9 ft champion.
Table 1: Sampled tree lengths, volume and relative distribution Tree summary Length (ft ) Length (m) Volume (ft3) Volume (m3) Percent Main trunk 115.5 (35.1) 2,015.8 (57.1) 70.9% Segments 438.32 (133.6) 791.3 (22.4) 27.8% Branches 573 (174.7) 37.1 (1.1) 1.3% Tree totals 1126.82 (343.5) 2,844.2 (80.6)
Will's announcement is posted on the ENTS website:
Offical Announcement & Pictures of 191.9' tuliptree in North Carolina
05-05-11
New AFA national champion ponderosa pine is located in El Dorado National Forest.
Don Errington, forest ranger for El Dorado National Forest, the smallest of California's national forests, has nominated a ponderosa pine (pinus ponderosa pacifica (formerly known as benthamiana) that should easily out-point the giant specimen near Hayfork in Shasta/Trinity National Forest. Two different foresters for El Dorado National Forest measure the dbh of this ponderosa at 8.5' and height at 233'. They call this ponderosa the "Perfect Specimen". According to Errington, the tree stands straight and is branchless way high up the bole. When viewing the attached pictures it is clear this giant ponderosa has a larger lower trunk than the current champion in Shasta/Trinity. The El Dorado ponderosa comes straight out of the ground like a cylinder while the Shasta/Trinty ponderosa champion has a rather large buttress. The point total difference is close enough that this tree is a co-champion to the Shasta/Trinity ponderosa.
UPDATE: I verified the tree on 5/08/2011. It stands 235' tall with a dbh of 8.59'. I estimated the trunk volume above debris with Macroscope25 at 4,658 cubic ft. I estimate the amount of wood below debris pile at 236 cubic feet. This ponderosa is one of the largest ever recorded and the new AFA champion.
05-01-11
Archangel Ancient Tree Archive was recently in the London Times