Giant Tree hunting

thompsontimber · January 06, 2009, 06:22:53 PM

Is there a good place to find listings of state record trees and such? I've ran across some that I wondered if they might be the record. We cut two awesome trees in Chesnee, SC a while back...the first was a 72" diameter Sycamore that was growing right in town but was well hidden growing beside an old YMCA pool that had been long since abandoned. A CVS now stands on the spot. We also cut an 87" White oak...loaded a truck with 7 logs from the tree (2 butt cuts and the rest out of forks). after the second cut, the tree forked, and there was a large crotch that wasn't merchantable. Now the lap stands in a driveway, and I have fogotten what the diameter after the 2 cuts was, but it is still massive. People that see it now and ask about it have a hard time believing that two logs were cut beneath that point, but I was there and can vouche for it. Anyways, I also know where a very large honeylocust and persimmon stand in the same yard...haven't measured them but I know they are the biggest I've ever seen.

WDH · January 06, 2009, 06:38:54 PM

http://www.clemson.edu/champtree/SouthCarolinaChampionTree.htm

Here is the champion list for SC. The champion white oak is 76" in diameter and 110' tall.

thompsontimber · January 07, 2009, 09:40:21 AM

Thanks for the link! Look forward to browsing that info...We white oak we cut measured 87" in diameter at the stump, not a DBH, though it basically had no taper to the forks. However, we failed to ever measure the height. It was sure a massive tree though, with a huge speading crown. No one locally would buy the logs because they were too big...ending up selling them to Durham Hardwood in Pickens. The tree was in a pasture on the property at the Burr's Trading Post in Chesnee. We cut it in 2002, and I'm betting the stump is still there as I don't know of him doing any stumping following the timber harvest. My dad has a pic of it somewhere taken with an old cam that spits out the pic when u take it. My bother and I are standing atop the tree after it was felled as we are propped on the chainsaw. Will try to get my hands on it and scan it.

WDH · January 07, 2009, 10:59:43 AM

You might have cut a champion

.

SwampDonkey · January 07, 2009, 12:54:25 PM

You could probably use taper equations if they are based on treelength and not breast height diameter. Another option I've done to get breast height diameter, was to measure stumps and breast heights on neighboring trees of the species and site and find R² regression with MS Excel. As your trees get bigger the gap between stump and breast height diameter increases. From what I found on good sites a maple, beech, birch will have 1-3/16" difference for a 4" BH tree, and 5.5" difference for a 20" BH tree. If you follow that through, an 87" will have a 23-15/16" difference, so a guestimate would be around 63 inches. Now that has no significance maybe for your site down there and species. But, I'll bet it's ball park. Big trees buttress a bit more than small ones.

Dave Shepard · January 07, 2009, 05:53:49 PM

Our white oak tends to be very buttressey. Hows that for a made up word? :D

thompsontimber · January 07, 2009, 06:08:33 PM

Well this particular tree didn't have much butt flare and I'm pretty confident it didn't conform to the trends you have found in your area, as I believe it would have been larger than 63" DBH...but alas the tree is gone now, so I'll never be able to measure and know...I'd love to see how accurate you were though, might be on the money. What I can do is measure the diameter of the lap that is now standing in a driveway. We cut one 16'4" log and one 12'4" best I can recall before the fork. I'll confirm it with the other guys who were there, as it was all the way back in 2002. I'll try to get a pic of that lap to post on here too, along with the diameter. Possible we cut a champion tree, which I hate as there was no change in land use and we could probably have persuaded the landowner to keep it if he realized what he had.

Left Coast Chris · January 08, 2009, 11:18:54 PM

A stroll thorugh avenue of the giants. With my tiny, tiny wife.

SwampDonkey · January 09, 2009, 06:29:07 AM

Was that where they filmed a scene in "North By North West" with Cary Grant? A Hitchcock movie of the 60's. Nice place to be.

Left Coast Chris · January 09, 2009, 10:50:38 PM

Not sure SD. You are predating my movie knowledge........ ;D........but it is just south of the town of Weott on Hwy 101. I could stay there all summer......... but not sure about the winter. It's really drippy and foggy.... perfect for plant life.

thompsontimber · January 22, 2009, 06:42:45 PM

Ok, here is an update on that monster white oak we cut back in 2002. I spoke with all 4 of the other witnesses independently and was surprised to find that they all had a very vivid memory of the tree and its dimensions as we measured them that day. Seems I had the worst memory of the bunch. I stated that we cut a 16'4" and a 12'4" log from the main stem, but the others are certain that we cut a 14'4" and a 12'4". The other logs were cut from the various forks beyond that point, and the lap is now standing in a driveway. I finally got by to take a picture of it today, and of course the camera batteries were dead. I will get that pic though, and I'm trying to track down the picture taken when the tree was cut down. I did take the time to measure the diameter of the lap today though, and it measured 61" at approx. 27 feet off the ground. I couldn't recall height and spread measurements, but the others did and consistently recalled a measured height on the ground of approx. 125' and a crown spread of 95'. As stated before, the stump measurement was 87". Hope to get those pics up soon, it was certainly an impressive tree.

SwampDonkey · January 22, 2009, 07:08:30 PM

With a tree that tall, it wouldn't taper as fast as ones that fit my model. Our hardwood top out at about 80 feet on the very best sites, 68 on average and 40 on dry rocky ridges before going "boreal" or scrub because of elevation. Impressive tree.

Dave Shepard · January 22, 2009, 08:41:35 PM

Wow! Sounds like a giant to me. 8)

The-Burl-Hunter · January 29, 2009, 08:07:00 PM

I know that I should get pics because it doesn't do me any justice but right across the street from me their is a huge cottonwood tree that is "bonded" with another, very nice tree(s) i'll try to get pics on asap ;D

Dodgy Loner · March 02, 2009, 05:07:02 PM

My girlfriend braved the cold rain with me this weekend to hike a mile into the woods to measure a giant hemlock tree that I found a year ago. The whole area was filled with old-growth hemlocks, actually, but the one we were measuring was the largest of the bunch. I found it devastated by the hemlock woolly adelgid, hanging to life by a thread. It will probably put on some new growth this spring, but the sap will be sucked up by the adelgids soon after. I suspect this will be the last year in the life of this 400-600 year-old giant.

Here are the measurements:
Circumference: 172" (more than 4.5' in diameter)
Height: 162'
Average crown spread: 44'

Here are a couple pics:

All of these hemlocks were 150'+. The big one is on the right.

SwampDonkey · March 02, 2009, 05:29:47 PM

We've got a couple old smashers here that size in girth, but maybe 120 feet. Taller than the hardwood by a fair bit. I never measured their height. The crowns on the ones I see come down into the forest canopy further. But they aren't being eaten up by aphids either. Is that rhododendron all over? ;D Cool woods Dodgy.

It can't be that cold down there with just a hoody on. :D

WDH · March 02, 2009, 09:39:52 PM

That is a beautiful tree. It does not look like it will make it.

SwampDonkey · March 03, 2009, 05:40:48 AM

Yeah hemlock is a tree I like to see in a stand of wood, even if it's low value on the pay scale. Even though aesthetics and wildlife occupancy doesn't often pay the bills for most of us, there is still value of a sort.

Lanier_Lurker · March 03, 2009, 06:26:57 AM

Quote from: Dodgy Loner on March 02, 2009, 05:07:02 PM
Here are the measurements:
Circumference: 172" (more than 4.5' in diameter)
Height: 162'
Average crown spread: 44'

Is that an even taller white pine next to it?

Dodgy Loner · March 03, 2009, 08:15:58 AM

Donk: Yep, those woods are covered in rhododendrons. Puts on quite a show in May and June.

LL: All the conifers you can see in that picture are hemlocks. If any of them appear taller than the one I measured, it's just because of perspective. The big one is a good 10' taller than the others.

Tom · March 03, 2009, 04:30:48 PM

I have it on good authority that Leprechauns live in those Rhododendron infested woods Be very careful about letting your girlfriend get too far away from you. They will steal her, adorn her with gold and diamonds and she'll never come back.

SwampDonkey · March 03, 2009, 05:14:00 PM

I think they already grabbed her Tom. Either that or she wouldn't give up the camera. :D

WDH · March 03, 2009, 05:52:58 PM

DanG Dodgy, don't lose that girl to the Leprechauns! Tie a rope on her :D.

fbelknap · March 03, 2009, 09:49:40 PM

There is a sycamore near Webster Springs in WV that is suppose to be the largest one in the world. It is now dieing and has become somewhat of a hazard. I have visited this tree several time over the last 50 years and it ounce was a magnificent tree. Here is a link if you would like to read about it.http://www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/west_virginia/webster/webster_springs.htm

Fred