Eno River Tulip Tree - Hillsborough, NC

[bbeduhn]

Awesome report!  It's nice to have a story to go along with the tree.  The crown is pretty craggy for what I assume to be a 140-150 year old tree.  Do you often climb solo?

[pdbrandt]

Awesome report!  It's nice to have a story to go along with the tree.  The crown is pretty craggy for what I assume to be a 140-150 year old tree.  Do you often climb solo?

Thanks, Brian.  I climb solo out of desperation, not necessarily by preference.  I recognize that it's not the safest way to climb, but there are very few climbers in the area.  I'm trying to change that though - starting with my 12 year old son and 9 year old daughter who do climb with me fairly often.  The only adult I've ever climbed with was from Ohio - Duane Hook, who is a fellow ENTS member.

[Bart Bouricius]

Patrick,

Just one more thing to add to Andrews good advice.  When you are placing a rope with a cord you would be advised to give it a good hard jerk just about 20 inches before it reaches the crotch, especially if the crotch is a bit narrow, but when you are removing a rope where you have presumably put it in a good wide crotch and don't have the rope, patience or time to set up a continuous loop, I would recommend slowing your pull to a crawl as the weight shifts to the point where the friction keeping the rope in place is overcome by the weight on the side you are pulling from.  This way it will be less likely to wrap around some branch a hundred times, or get stuck in an adjacent tree, as it will tend to fall straight down instead of jumping sideways.  I hope that was clear.  

Bart

[pdbrandt]

Great advice, Bart.  Haste makes waste every time.  I was in a hurry to get going, but of course ended up taking much longer to fix the outcome of my rush.  I actually just got back from a cat rescue and I was sure to lower the rope saver and climbing line down carefully this time.

[pdbrandt]

I revisited the Eno River Tulip Poplar recently to test out my new (to me at least) Nikon 440 rangefinder.  A Suunto clinometer is in the mail (also an ebay purchase) so I'm not official quite yet.  Another reason for revisiting the tree is that I recently got access to NC's LIDAR data set, which suggests a height for this tree of 143 feet.  

               

                       

                       

The "key" in the screen shot above gives a general idea of the color coded height values.  I can click on each pixel and get the exact height read out, which is where the 143 foot LIDAR hit comes from.

               

               

Last year I measured this tree (as reported in the first post of this thread) via tape drop/pole extension to be 132 feet but I am not that confident in that measurement since it is very hard to do a tape drop measurement alone (someone needs to hold the tape at ground level to keep it taught).  On this latest visit I climbed to 38 yards (114 feet) as confirmed by a rangefinder pulse directly to the ground.  Then I measured the highest twigs directly above me at an additional 11 yards for a total tree height of 147 feet.  Once I have the clinometer and have calibrated the Prostaff 440, I will measure the tree using the sine method from the ground and will post an update.  

In case you're interested, here is a video report of this most recent climb.  [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqeCWRfzbFY[/youtube]  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqeCWRfzbFY

.

[Will Blozan]

Patrick,

Thanks for sharing the update and video! Very nice tree. Since you have climbed the tree it will be a good one for you to hone your laser/clinometer skills on. Try different angles, distances and straight-up thru the crown (should be getting 45.5-46 yards standing underneath at midslope). Since you know the highest point your practice will let you know what works and what doesn't. Also, if all is going well you will never have a reading higher than your tape drop.

Good luck and come up to Asheville for some climbs. You need to experience a 180' tuliptree.

Will

[pdbrandt]

Patrick,

Thanks for sharing the update and video! Very nice tree. Since you have climbed the tree it will be a good one for you to hone your laser/clinometer skills on. Try different angles, distances and straight-up thru the crown (should be getting 45.5-46 yards standing underneath at midslope). Since you know the highest point your practice will let you know what works and what doesn't. Also, if all is going well you will never have a reading higher than your tape drop.

Good luck and come up to Asheville for some climbs. You need to experience a 180' tuliptree.

Will

Thanks, Will.  I will definitely be coming to the Smokies again in late April 2013 (I visited the Sag Branch Tulip Poplar with your help last spring) and I'd love to see a 180'+ tulip tree this time around.  Do you have any modeling climbs planned in the Smokies this spring that I could tag along for?

As far as this Tulip Poplar in Hillsborough.  I am more confident in my most recent rangefinder height of 140+ feet than my initial tape drop measurement of 132 feet due to the fact that on the first climb I didn't go as high in the tree and I had to guess the pole extension height based on a 17 foot painters' pole that only reached about halfway to the highest branches even when fully extended.  There are higher branches that could probably hold me just fine, but I didn't want to push my luck -- gravity can be very unforgiving.

[Bart Bouricius]

Beautiful Tulip.  Being an arborist, I have spent a lot of time in trees that Sap Suckers have visited, and it seems to me that I have seen a preference for fruit trees, but especially Bass Wood or American Linden where the holes are so frequently found that I use their presence to help me identify the tree when ID is not immediately clear.  Tulip trees do not seem to be a favorite in this part of the country (Massachusetts).

[pdbrandt]

Update:  I revisited the Eno River Tulip Tree in Hillsborough with my newly calibrated Nikon 440 LRF and Suunto clinometer.  The tree is quite challenging to measure because of thick undergrowth and overlapping crowns.  I had to measure the upper portion and lower portion of the tree from 2 different locations.  Adding the heights, I got a measure of 141.4 feet for the tree.  The NC LIDAR data suggests a measure of 143' for this tree.  Prior to calibrating the LRF I took it into the tree with me on the climb described in post #15 above.  From a point within the crown I measured 38.0 yards to the mid-slope base of the tree and 11.0 yards to the highest sprig above me.  Applying my calibration correction to those numbers and estimating the angle of each measurement at 85 degrees gives a value of 143.4.  Despite the mild discrepancy in my two LRF measurements, I am confident that I have found my first 140+ foot deciduous tree.  Another nearby tulip poplar is 122.1 feet tall.

The NC LIDAR data suggests a handful of additional 140 foot groves within a 30 mile radius of home on public lands - most of them in evergreen forests.  I plan to visit all of them before leaf out so hopefully I will have another 140 footer to report on soon.

[bbeduhn]

Patrick,
Uh oh.  You've found a 140 footer.  You'll want to find more...and then, you'll want to break 150'...and so on.  You're getting pulled into the vicious cycle.  Fortunately, it's a very good addiction to have.  Enjoy the ride and the thrill of the hunt.
Brian