Anyway - as I was leaving the doctor’s office I looked up and beheld a beautiful tree I had never noticed before on the side of a steep hill near the Eno River in Hillsborough, NC. I unconsciously found myself walking toward the tree to get a closer look only to find that it was on the other side of the Eno from where I was. Before I knew it, I was crossing the river on an exposed water main in my business clothes and heading up the hill to the tree. Below is a picture of my first view of the full tree, which, not surprisingly, turned out to be a tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera). I was a little dismayed by all the English Ivy in the area…
Click on image to see its original size
I took a few more pictures of the area and came back another morning on my way to work with my tape measure to determine the big tulip’s CBH and crown spread as well as the CBH of some other prominent oaks and tulips in the area. The big tulip is half way up a 60 foot hillside that borders the Eno River. The area contains large rock outcroppings, lots of beech trees, and plenty of signs of wildlife, too. There is an old stone fence at the top of the hill, and on the other side of the fence is an old, unused farmer’s field that is ceding to the gradual creep of the forest.
Click on image to see its original size
Click on image to see its original size
Click on image to see its original size
Click on image to see its original size
The big tulip trunk is in the middle of the picture just to the right of an ivy-laden trunk
Click on image to see its original size
view of the big tulip (directly in the center of the pic) from the field at the top of the hillside
The CBH of the big tulip is 13 feet even and the average crown spread (corrected for the steep angle of the hillside) is 71.5 feet. Other notable trees within a stone’s throw include twin tulip trees at the crest of the hill (measuring 11’, 2” and 11’, 3” CBH), and a couple of nearby oaks measuring 11’, 7” and 10’, 6”. The twin tulips are on par height-wise with the big tulip, but they are growing at the top of the hillside a good 20 feet above the base of the big tulip.
Click on image to see its original size
Click on image to see its original size
zooming in on the crown
Click on image to see its original size
the twin tulips at the top of the hill
Click on image to see its original size
crowns of the twin tulips
Last Monday, President’s day, I returned on a rare (for NC) snowy day to climb the big tulip to measure its height and total volume. There is some ivy growing on one side of the tree that I (carefully) clipped on an earlier visit to the area, but even without nutrients from the roots, the ivy still looked perfectly healthy (and allergenic) on the day of the climb. I decided to set my climbing line on the second-lowest branch of the tree so that I could climb on the side without the ivy. Unfortunately, that limb is 84 feet off the ground and I only have a 150 foot climbing line. Since I don’t (yet) have gear for single rope technique (SRT) ascension, I am limited to doubled rope technique (DRT). That means that the rope, when doubled over the limb, was still about 6 feet off the ground on the uphill side.
Click on image to see its original size
great day for a climb!
Not to be deterred from measuring the tallest tree I have ever encountered, I created a foot strap I could stand in using some webbing and an accessory cord that I tied around the base of the tree. That allowed me to reach the ends of the rope and clip into my harness. I took trunk circumference measurements as I went up and was surprised to see that unlike other tulips I have seen in NC, there are very few moss and lichens growing on the big tulip’s trunk. I did see what I’m assuming is woodpecker evidence, though. At 90 feet up, the circumference of the tree is still 9’, 7”.
Click on image to see its original size
notice the orange climbing line in the upper third of the picture
Click on image to see its original size
woodpeckers?
Once in the canopy, I took some time to catch my breath, take some pictures, and enjoy the view. I didn’t have a whole lot of time to remain in the tree, so I took some limb measurements and made educated guesses on the stats of the limbs I didn’t have time to visit. I advanced my tie in point a few times to where I could get an accurate pole reading to determine the height of the tallest branch. Adding a few measurements together (I only carry a 100 foot tape measure) I determined the height of the tulip to be 132’, 2”. That gives a big tree point value of 306.
Click on image to see its original size
my doctor’s office is right in the middle of the picture
Click on image to see its original size
looking toward the north at downtown Hillsborough
Click on image to see its original size
looking toward the northeast
I crunched the volume calculations in Excel using the spreadsheet linked here: The volume of the trunk from ground level to 91.5’ where it splits into twin leaders is a respectable 906 cubic feet. As mentioned above, I relied on a fair number of assumptions to calculate the canopy limb volume, but I tried to err on the side of under-representation rather than exaggeration. There are 21 primary limbs with an combined estimated volume of 104 cubes. The secondary branches (those less than 2” in diameter) only add about 8.5 cubes. I think it is very safe to say that the volume of this tree exceeds 1000 cubes but not by too much.
I don’t know if other climbers experience what I call “land legs” when they get back on terra firme, but when reaching the ground after a few hours in a tree I always stumble around and trip over myself until my legs get used to being under me again. For this reason, I was not really looking forward to unclipping from my rope while balancing on the foot strap I had tied around the lower section of the trunk. I decided instead to lower my initial tie in point to a slightly lower limb that would allow me to descend all the way to the ground on rope. The only problem was that that side of the big tulip is covered with English ivy. I did my best to avoid touching the ivy on my way down, but the only way to do that was to “walk” down the trunk with my feet kicking the ivy out of the way.
Click on image to see its original size
Once on the ground, in my haste to remove my cambium saver and climbing line from my 75-foot tie in point, I decided not to lower the rope to the ground with a 2mm-diameter throw line as I should have (hind sight is 20-20). Instead, I just tied a stopper knot in one end of the climbing line and pulled on the other end until the knot dislodged the cambium saver and both came careering wildly toward the ground from 75 feet up. As luck would have it the end of the rope and the cambium saver became hopelessly lodged in a nearby beech tree, and… you guessed it… the trunk of the beech tree was absolutely covered with English ivy.
Click on image to see its original size
the cambium saver and rope were stuck in the ivy-infested beech on the right
The rope would not budge and my only option was to climb the stuck rope and attach a mini grapnel hook onto the cambium saver. When back on the ground I could pull down on the hook with a throw line attached to the grapnel and dislodge the cambium saver. I climbed SRT-style about 30 feet up the rope using two prusik cords trying my best to avoid the ivy. The rescue was successful and in short order I was packing up my ropes and gear. When I got back to the car I gave my exposed skin a thorough washing with powder-scented baby wipes I had in the car and hoped for the best.
That was 3 days ago and I’m happy to say that my English ivy exposure seems to be minimal and well-worth the experience of climbing my first 1000+ cuber and first 300+ point tulip with an unbeatable view of my doctor’s office.
