Update on Tallest Tree by State

[dbhguru]

NTS,

     This morning I began pulling together the latest maximum height for all trees by state - the states we've concentrated on. The information is scattered, but I think the numbers given in the attached list are accurate. the only non-NTS number is the Kentucky tall tree, because it was climbed and tape-drop measured. I refuse to even consider non-NTS sources, especially in eastern states like Michigan, which have zero credibility. We need to add more western states. I'll leave that to Michael Taylor and Don Bertolette. I'm unsure if we have enough data from Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas to list the highest number we have. Conspicuously absent from the list are Connecticut and Rhode Island, practically my backyard. However, I have not been able to locate outstanding tall tree sites in either state, although I have good reason to believe they exist, especially Connecticut. I request the help of the rest of you in maintaining this list. Eventually, we should rely on the database for this kind of information, but in the near term, we need to maintain it in Excel. Oh yes, I didn't include the dead Yellow Buckeye from West Virginia. The list is not meant to be historical maximums, but one of currently live trees.

               

                       

TallestTreesEastList.xlsx

                                               

(10.1 KiB) Downloaded 148 times

               

               

Bob

[Larry Tucei]

Bob,  The tallest Southern Magnolia in  Ms., De Soto National Forest 109'.  Larry

[dbhguru]

Larry,

  We're looking for the absolute maximum for all species in a state. I don't remember what your tallest measured tree is, but something over 130 feet I seem to recall. However, it wouldn't list it for Mississippi unless you feel it would be in the ballpark.

Bob

[tsharp]

Bob: You have my name attached to the Widen Yellow-poplar. I had nothing to do with it. This tree was measured by Carl Harting, Tony Kelley, Mike Plevich, Russ Richardson, and Amy Cimarillo? In March of 2006. Unfortunately I was not even an ENT then.
Turner Sharp

[Larry Tucei]

Bob,  I emailed you offlist with a Fla. listing and a question. Larry

[dbhguru]

Turner,

  Thanks. I remember now that there was a team that did the measurement.

Bob

[adam.rosen]

I know quality of measurement is a big deal.  The Vermont big tree list on our state website lists the Londonderry Pine at 144, and that was a 2003 measurement.  I would imagine it has grown since then.  It's multitrunked, and I'd like to know once and for all that it is really one tree!  Well, any hoo, I don't have any thing to measure except the stick method and my 36 inch paces, so I'm no good to measure it.  It's on Under the Mountain Road, a bit higher up in the West River Valley than the tree you have listed.  I've got no idea how accurate the measurements on the Vermont website for big trees is...for instance, can the state largest tree, a cottonwood, really be eight feet across, 442 points?  I'd like to see a photo of that tree.

[dbhguru]

Adam,

  The odds are that the multi-stemmed Vermont pine has been over-measured. The spreading forms of multi-stemmed white pines lead to large height errors when measured with tape and clinometer. This method still receives wide use and even advanced instruments instruments that could employ sine-based calculations still hangs on to tangent-based calcs. It will probably take several more years for our advanced methods to really catch on. But the simple truth is that you cannot trust a state list unless you know who is maintaining it and that its submissions are being verified by an experienced measurer using lasers and sine-based calculations. It really is that simple.

 Some of the state lists are administered by forestry extension agencies usually located in a university. One might think that those agencies would have the internal expertise to clean up ailing state lists. One might think, but .......

Bob

[tsharp]

Bob: The tallest height that i have measured in Idaho is a Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir (P. menziesis var. glauca) at 147.5' near Banks, Idaho in the Boise National Forest.
tsharp

[dbhguru]

Turner,

 Thanks. Idaho is the land of opportunity. It has many fine trees in the northern region, but owe gracious, what a rugged landscape to hunt in.

Bob