Private southeastern Arkansas site 2

[Jess Riddle]

Nts,

Another southeastern Arkansas site that work took me to this summer isn’t quite as productive for pine as the first site I described (http://ents-bbs.org/viewtopic.php?f=67&t=6614), but a wider variety of hardwoods thrive on the site. Loblolly pine, white oak, and southern red oak dominate the uplands while the stream bottom, where I concentrated my measuring, harbors a mix of okas and sweetgum. The site was recently selectively logged, so the largest cherrybark, shumard, and white oaks are gone. Pines were not cut at all, and the other species still give a good representation of what growth the region is capable of producing.

Site2Measurements.JPG (87.79 KiB) Viewed 2837 times

9’2” cbh x 128.7’ tall shumard oak

9’7” cbh x 133.5’ tall cherrybark oak

I think the proportion of species that are records of some kind speaks to the exceptional nature of the stand. The bitternut hickory, southern red oak, cherrybark oak, sweetleaf, Carolina basswood, and winged elm are the tallest I’ve been able to locate in the state, and the mockernut hickory, black walnut, white oak, northern red oak, and black oak are the tallest I’ve seen in the coastal plain. NTS has little data on Carolina basswood, so this tree establishes a benchmark. The sweetleafs warrent note as the second through fourth tallest NTS has documented (while ranking nearly has high in girth), and the southern red oak deserves special attention as it essentially ties the species’ height record.

An exceptionally large mockernut hickory for the coastal plain, 8’3” cbh x 110.9’ tall

Tallest known cherrybark oak in Arkansas? 9’3” cbh x 139.2’ tall

127.5’ southern red oak (dark trunk) surrounded by tall white oaks.

The main stream flowing through the site. Like many streams in the region, the stream dries up in late summer, but flows regularly and floods occasionally during the winter

Jess

[Will Blozan]

Jess,

Awesome! Some great benchmarks and superlatives in there. Nice to see the smaller trees documented as well. Those sweetleaf are impressive!

Will

[dbhguru]

Jess,

Those are some pretty impressive numbers. Heretofore, I've had the idea that Arkansas didn't grow trees to compete with farther to the east, but maybe the explanation is that the best stuff gets regularly cut.

Bob

[Joe]

Jess,

Those are some pretty impressive numbers. Heretofore, I've had the idea that Arkansas didn't grow trees to compete with farther to the east, but maybe the explanation is that the best stuff gets regularly cut.

Bob

No doubt- so called forestry in most places is no such thing. Too bad, since it's possible for good forestry to co-exist with great trees, they just need to retain the best trees and best sites- it wouldn't be a big loss to the forestry folks, especially if they do better work, they can grow all the timber needed by this nation without wasting the nicest trees, the way they cut 97% of the redwoods.
Joe

[bbeduhn]

Those oaks are impressive! I haven't seen superlative white and southern red together. Post oak has to be near record as well. Those measurements are with leaves on so some may be a bit taller. I'm not at all familiar with carolina basswood.

[Larry Tucei]

Awesome heights on those oaks Jess.!!!

[mdavie]

Yowzer! That's pretty impressive.
Good lord, what did they cut in there if that's what's left over?

[Lucas]

Love the oaks! We don't have trees like that here.

[Jess Riddle]

Bob,

I think both your ideas are on the right track. I think the long, hot summer and reduced rainfall in late growing season limits the height of most species in the region relative to the heights they can achieve farther east. The exceptions seem to be species that are fairly drought tollerant (like southern red and post oak), which are competitive on more productive sites than they are farther east, and species that tap into groundwater (cottonwood and willows). It is a bit hard to be certain of those patterns, because mature forests are scarce. There is far more cutting on both public and private land in this region than in the mountains.

Jess

[dbhguru]

Jess

What is your sense about baldcypress in Arkansas? Being out of the worst of the hurricane zone and a wetland species, one might expect pretty good growth performance. But I expect the best will get cut before they can show us what they can do.

Bob