A few weeks ago I reported on some tree measuring at Mingo Creek County Park in Washington County PA.
Since then, I've made over a dozen trips to the park in an effort to do a reasonably detailed survey of the trees.
The park is about 2600 acres in size, probably 60% of which is forested.
Consequently, this project has required a great deal of hiking and scrambling along steep hillsides and rocky streams.
Though arduous, the effort has been very rewarding and informative to me.
From the very beginning I was surprised to find how context dependent my sense of tree height is.
Larger caliber trees on level terrain were almost invariably shorter than thinner trees along steep hillside and in coves.
Even though I already knew this intellectually, my perception of height kept colliding the reality displayed by my Nikon 550.
As I've gained more experience, my perception has improved... somewhat.
The woodlands of the park are textbook mixed mesophytic forest.
About 15 native tree species are commonly found in the forest canopy.
At least 15 additional native species occur ocasionally.
The trees in the park are virtually all secondary if not tertiary growth.
With the exception of a few scatterd old field trees, I would guess they are generally 50 to 100 years old.
Mingo Creek runs from west to east though the center of the park.
The stream bank and flood plain is home to many tall sycamore trees.
They also occur occasionally on the slopes and along feeder streams, north and south of the main stem.
- The sycamores around this gazebo range from 126 to 134' high
- Here's an old hollow sycamore. I measured a cbh of 21'-4" and even though it's declining, got a height measurement > 100'
In the southwest corner of the park I found a couple dozen decent tulip trees. The tallest is just shy of 130'.
These are relatively young trees, so hopefully that they will grow to be considerable taller.
Downwind and from these trees,a 2 or 3 acre abandoned field, has been transformed almost pure stand of young tulip poplars.
Some are already around 90' high.
Another pioneer species, Black Cherry, is ubiquitous through out the park.
Most are between 90 and 110' in height, but competition with oak, hickory and ash, has pushed some a bit higher.
I found a few in the 120's.
- Black Cherry - 128'
Sassafras is found along borders and mixed in with young stands of maple and black cherry.
Where the forest is more mature, I occasionally found the dead trunks of overtopped sassafras.
But a few are still hanging on here and there.
- 100'+ sassafras growing between 2 oak trees
- An old White Ash with nice root character
This is the Henry family farmhouse.
They were early homesteaders in the area.
The house was built in 1817, perhaps the Sugar Maples growing around it were planted at the same time.
I got a surprisingly good RI of 122.6' for the park. Much better than I expected.
The park's steeply sloped topography and good species diversity substantially boosted the number.
I am anxious to survey some other sites in the area to see how they compare.
A list of the 12 x 100 trees. There are a few more that I haven't measured yet.
- Mingo12x100s.jpg (66.09 KiB) Viewed 1306 times
4 of the NROs, including the 2 biggest, are found in a 4-5 acre grove of old oak trees in the NE corner of the park.
Other trees found but not yet measured
Black Gum
Black Locust
Honey Locust
Osage Orange
American Basswood
Shellbark Hickory
Chestnut Oak
Black Willow
Colorado Blue Spruce
Bigtooth Aspen
Austrian Pine
Slippery Elm
This project has really challenged my tree identification skills. So its possible I that missed a few things.
I am particularly weak with elm trees, any helpful hints would be appreciated.
I hope to resurvey the park in a few years and see how things have changed.
Best regards,
Steve Halow
