Nova Scotias oldest tree

[SwampDonkey]

A 418-year-old eastern hemlock was discovered by Sarah Hart, an environmental science student at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick.

Despite its age — the 11th-oldest eastern hemlock in the world, according to a news release from Mount Allison — the tree is only 30 centimetres in diameter. It stands somewhere in southwestern Nova Scotia.

I bet that monster I posted here last winter would beat that by 100 years. Anyone with an 'inky' borer?  ;)

[beenthere]

Is that unusual for an eastern hemlock to be that old?   :
Not too unusual for some other species, is it?

[SwampDonkey]

It's not unusual to find 400 year old hemlocks, but I know they have aged some in Odell Park at Fredericton to be over 500 years old. I remember about 20 years ago there was a 80 acre hemlock stand in the city limits. It got cleared for a big Walmart-Sears mall and an RCMP regional centre. That was a nice park like stand with no under growth. The record Eastern Hemlock was 988 years old.

[Dave Shepard]

Jack Sobon tells of finding a 1" hemlock that had 75 growth rings, just waiting very patiently for an opening in that crown!

A friend of mine pulled some hemlock logs out of a retention pond on one of the hydro sites he was working on. They were no more than 16" in diameter, but had at least 300 growth rings. They had been cut with an axe and had a stamp in the end so they could be sorted at the other end of the log drive. They were 8'6", he believes they were intended for mining timbers.


Dave

[WDH]

Wow, that gives another whole dimension to "tight growth rings".

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, balsam fir and hemlock can live in the understory and look like a 3 foot seedling and be 50 or 60 years old. ;D There was a stand that different ones would go on field exercises when putting on courses and the understory was fir about 4 feet high and the overstory was aspen about 30 feet high. The aspen was 25 years old and the fir was about 50.  Great conversation piece. ;D

[Phorester]

Goes to show what we keep saying, that the size of a tree has little to do with its age, big doesn't necessarily mean old, little doesn't necessarily mean young.

I have a 4" diameter white oak tree section in my office with 75 growth rings on it. I have a loblolly pine section almost 16" diameter with 23 rings.  To go along with that for educational talks with kids, I have a 1" diameter white oak that's also 23 years old. I'll hold up the pine and ask, okay, if this tree is 23 years old, then how old do you think this one is? Then i'll hold up the 1" diameter oak that's the same age.  Makes for an interesting discussion.

The oldest small tree ??? I've bored so far was a 12" diameter chestnut oak that was 160 years old.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah there is an ash board (end grain) posted in my gallery and several threads that has a scale along the bottom showing a couple inches. The board has the pith in it, which may not be in the photo, but from the pith to the edge of the board is a little over 3 inches with 80 rings. ;D It came from a tree that was around 20 inches at breast height. The first few years grew faster than the last 50, but not that significant. Ash is more shade tolerant that some think. It became a dominant tree in the forest it came from. I'm the one that cut it. It was cut from virgin forest. ;D

[Tom]

I understand that waiting patiently for an opening in the crown, doesn't mean that it will be able to take advantage of one if it appears.

[LT40HDD51]

I cut a 30" redwood log in B.C. that was 36 years old or so... just had to count those huge rings, almost an inch apart  ;D

[Furby]

That math don't add up.

[Jeff]

No it don't does it Furby. :D   One of those 3 dimensions cant be right.     One inch apart rings at 36 years old would have a diameter greater then 70"

[Texas Ranger]

I have two cookies in my office of southern yellow pine, one is 42" diameter and one is about 8" diameter, both are, or were. 80 years old.

when cruising for Champion, before they sold, I bored a 14" dbh longleaf pine, maybe 100 foot tall, that was over 200 years old, growing in a rock outcropping and probably root bound.  Had to use a strong glass to count the rings, and a lot of patience.

[WDH]

I saw those cookies in TR's office (Forestry Museum), and the contrast is incredible.  (I slipped back into Texas for the last day or two, but I was traveling incognito!  Didn't want to stress out those yaupons on Tcsmpsi's place ;D) .  Measured several 36" loblolly's today.  But, every thing is bigger in Texas, right?   

[LT40HDD51]

Sorry, it was around 30" and some of the rings were about an inch apart...   ;)  ;D

[Blue Sky]

I was cutting on a TSI project back in the 80's, when I started noticing how compact the growth rings were on chestnut Oaks.  They were growing on very steep, rock strewn slopes.  A 12" diameter tree had 170 years. AMAZING.  In 1974, I cut a American Elm that had died from the Dutch Elm disease.  It was 25 feet in circumference, 4' off the ground.  AGE=125.  Go figure    Enchanted Foirester

[LT40HDD51]

How does circumference compare to diameter?

[beenthere]

LT40...
Divide circumference by pi  (3.1415....) to get diameter...or roughly by a third).

Guess that makes Enchanted Forester's elm about 8' diameter at 4' off the ground...pics would be nice    It was a fast growing tree, for sure.