New Mission at Fort Hill, Ohio Takes Shape

[Rand]

Rand,

...Weather is looking great....knock on formica.

Matt

All future goat sacrificing duties are hereby delegated to Bob.

[dbhguru]

Rand,

Dang, I was hoping to delegate. Anyway, looking forward to the event and seeing all of you.

It has been raining cats and dogs (no goats) for the past several days here in New England. I hope the wet weather is over for a spell.

Bob

[Rand]

A few picture from Fort Hill. It was a beautiful day in the 70's, with the last of the fall color on full display:

~129' Shagbark Hickory

And the huge sycamore: 119' x 23' 4", 59' to the first fork, Spread: 104' x 107' (Bob may have slightly more exact figures)
If anything can take on the champion tuliptree at Sand Run as the most massive tree in the state, it's this one.

[dbhguru]

Rand,

Good shots. Monica and I are in Clarion, PA on our way back to Massachusetts. When I get back, I'll report on the measurements I took at Highland Nature Preserve, plus plenty of photos. Nothing overwhelming, but not shabby, e.g. an American beech at 11.6 feet in girth.

Bob

[dbhguru]

Ents,

The just completed trip to Forth Hill, Highlands Nature Sanctuary, and various ancient mounds in south central Ohio was fabulous. What a discovery! There is much to share. Most will need to await until I get to my desktop computer, but here are a few images. The first two show the huge sycamore that Rand reported on. At 4.5 feet above ground, it is 24.2 feet in circumference. Rand is in the first shot and Matt in the second.

The next image would be of of a 12.1-foot girth, 102-pot tall chestnut oak with two very large burls. But this !@#$%^&* Internet connection is so slow that I gave up trying to load it. So, please just imagine the scene. Regardless, these burls, that you must imagine, are for you, wood carver Ray Asselin. And you owe me two ice cream stops for taking the images, one per burl.

Remainder of scenes will be sent from my home tomorrow evening or Monday. Motel Internet service stinks!!

Bob










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[Steve Galehouse]

NTS-

What a great sycamore, and a great site in general. I wish I has been able to make it down there. I'll certainly plan to get there in the future.

Steve

[Erik Danielsen]

The images of that sycamore look like they belong in a topic over in the south/central america forums, rather than Ohio...

[sradivoy]

According to the tree database the Moses sycamore would rank as the third thickest single stem tree in the state, behind a 302" white oak and a 294" cucumber tree. The database needs to be updated.

[Matt Markworth]

Bob,

I was very pleased to be able to check out some of E. Lucy Braun's books/articles from the Cincinnati Public Library today. One of them is entitled An Ecological Survey of the Vegetation of Fort Hill State Memorial. It was published in 1969, just two years before her death. The preface was written in March 1968, and she mentions that her first visit to Fort Hill was in April 1923. I knew that she had visited Fort Hill, but never dreamed that this publication would have photos, including two photos of old Moses himself. (both photos taken by E. Lucy Braun).

But, it gets better. She lists the DBH as 85 inches. I have no reason to doubt that she would have taken that measurement herself, so I think it's pretty cool that we have measured a tree also measured by none other than E. Lucy Braun. With a DBH of 85 inches equating to a CBH of 22'3", the tree has put on approximately 2 ft of girth since the late 60's.

Thanks to Dr. E. Lucy Braun for leaving us with the results of her tireless research and her life's work. Looking forward to reading more of what she has to share about the great forests of the East.

Matt

[dbhguru]

Matt,

That is sooooo cool! Waaaay cool! Cosmic cool! We re-measured a tree measured by none other than E. Lucy herself. I'm psyched. We've got to tell Nancy about this. Thanks so much for sharing. I bet Moses feels appropriately honored.

Bob