300 Year old scarlet oak removed in Oxford, Ohio

[SwampDonkey]

Link to Article

It was humongous: 26-feet in diameter and weighed 46,000 pounds (23 tons).    Don't they mean circumference? That would put it at 8 feet, sounds more realistic. Anyone have any info to confirm the size?

[Mooseherder]

Heard about this on the Radio yesterday and tried to find a link last night but couldn't. >:(
Wonder if they can make sumpthin usefull out of it.

[SwampDonkey]

Can't be 26 feet in diameter though. I'm sitten in this room and looking at 4 - 12' x 14' rooms and that just can't be. If it is, it must be a multi-stemmed thing. Even then I don't believe it.  :D

[SwampDonkey]

Any of you Ohio members scoot over to Oxford will ya's? Take a tape and show them folks how to measure diameter. :D

[Furby]

 :D :D :D
I've got a local historical booklet from the late 70's early 80's.
They were talking about a local round barn and listed it's diameter, something like 267' or something (don't recall the exact size).
Couldn't place a round barn that big even though I lived a mile from where they were talking about.
Couldn't even imagine one being built that big.
Did the math and took it down to circumference, that was more like it and sure looks like the size of the one sitting in the spot they were talking about. ;D :D

[Phorester]

Yeah, people get circumfrence and diameter mixed up all the time. When I ask, "by diameter, do you mean the distance around the outside of the tree trunk, like your belt around your waist?"  They look at me like I'm an idiot and say, "of course that's what I mean, that's the diameter!"

Reminds me of sort of a related incident.  A fellow came in my office who wanted to know how much his black walnut in his yard was worth. He said it was so big you couldn't touch your fingers together around it.  Went to look at it and it was a skinny little tree.  I thought he meant he couldn't touch his fingers together when he put his arms around it.  He meant when he put just his hands around it.  :

[SwampDonkey]

Good one.  :D :D ;D Then, again I bet he was mess'n with ya.  ;D

[WDH]

I find it interesting that there is no scarlet oak listed in Ohio's register of champion trees.......If you follow the link to the article, there is a link to the champion tree list.

[Phorester]

"Good one.     Then, again I bet he was mess'n with ya."

Nope, he was serious.  He had absolutely no clue. This was back in the 80s when the black walnut craze hit and everybody thought they were suddenly independently wealthy if they had a  beatup gnarly crooked walnut tree in their yard.

But at least he got the species right, it was a walnut. 

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, the largest is a  Chinkapin Oak at 7.6' diameter. But, I'm not sure that means anything. Folks that have a big tree may not even register it or know there is a register, or may not want to draw attention to themselves.

[WDH]

You are right about folks not wanting to draw attention to something.  I found an extremely rare and endangered plant, Relicit Trillium, on a private landowner's property, but they did not want it registered as a site because of a concern of potential meddling by the state.

[Tom]

That is a viable concern.  Farmers around here would rather not have anyone know what is on their land.  As a matter of fact, the more concerned the Government got about wetlands and wetland trees, the more wetland trees were removed, ponds dug and low places filled.  Environmentalists who were once welcomed as Nature Lovers to hike in the river bottoms, found themselves shut out.

Contrary to the belief of these Environmentalists organizations the farmer doesn't really believe that the Cypress tree on his property belongs to the entire world, especially if he was the one who planted it.  Meddling with the ownership of private property has caused the demise of many plants and animals.  It's as if this mode of concern is counter to its original goal. 

I once welcomed college students and State Agricultural people on my place until I saw one of the old timer Water Conservation guys stopping a student from taking pictures of roads, ditches and other common silviculture practices found on a farm.  The only thing this guy was interested in was "somebody dug a hole".  It cost him a piece of land where he would have otherwise been welcomed.  The Water Conservation guy was a blessing, but his office is no longer invited either.  The next Director might be that kid with the camera.

[SwampDonkey]

I've experienced the same thing with some uncommon plants, but I never disclose their exact locations.

[WDH]

My concern is that there are too many people who do not know where the food and fiber come from.  It sure ain't Walmart and Home Depot.  People seem to think that the "forest" is theirs and they want to legislate what others can do with the forests.  I own timberland where I am managing for timber, wildlife, recreation, etc.  I pay the taxes, do the hard work, lose the money on the investment, etc. yet so many others want to tell me what I can do and what I cannot do to suit their own sentiments.  As long as it is allowed by the law, I will fiercely protect my right to manage my own property with proven forestry best management practices.  In one nearby county, if you want to harvest timber, you have to get approval from the P&Z board for your management plan.  In one notable case, the board turned down a proposed clear-cut and directed that a 150' buffer be left all the way around the property because they "did not like the way a clear cut looked"!  Pity the poor timberland owner trying to make do with the huge expense of owning property that you have to preserve for the good of the element of society that does not "like" the way it looks.  On this subject we cannot give an inch to the "do-gooders".

[farmerdoug]

When they rebuilt and repaved our road several years ago they removed all of the trees from the road rightaway accept were the owners paid to have culverts put in.  Noone said much about it.  When the construction company came in to start tearing the road down 18 inches and rebuilding it from the base up, we let them park their equipment in part of a field that we were not using in two different locations.  In exchange they left me a pile of top soil and gravel I will probably never use up. 

The neighbor lady across from my Grandfather farm down that road had a fit about them parking the equipment across the road on our place.  She called everyone she could to try to stop them from blocking her veiw.  : It was an old grass field that had not been cut for several years by the way.  I am glad to say that she could not find a sampathetic ear. 8) 8) 8)  Our road was in real need of repair so they were all happy to see it done. ;D  When they would clean up the weekly trash on the site she would not even let them put the bag with her trash.  We have trash pickup paid for by the township here so I told the supervisor of the project just to drop it off with ours.

Farmerdoug