New World's Tallest Pines x 4 & Tallest Ponderosa x 8

[M.D. Vaden]

Went on a small expedition with Taylor the big tree guy on January 3rd and today, the 9th. The results of the two day adventure yielded:

4 new world's tallest pines. All Ponderosa.

268.35' ~ 266' ~ 262' ~ 259.5'

And it looks like 8 new tallest known Ponderosa pines.

LINK: Tallest Pine in the World.

We also drove up along the Umqua River a ways to the tallest known sugar pine. The sign said 265'. But we came up with 255' using the rangefinder. Snowed coming back down. The area is gorgeous up there: the Umpqua. The photo below is the forest south of the Rogue River where we found the Ponderosa pines.

View attachment 167869

 

[treeslayer]

Great work !!

 

[puzzledmonkey]

Very cool exped

 

[treeman75]

Thats alot of lumber! A friend of mine has family that lives by Grants Pass.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

It may be worth noting too, that the tallest sugar pine west of Canyonville in the hills, is still living. That's the one that someone "girdled" all the way around some years ago. But I'm not certain that they got through the cambium all the way around. Just can't tell. A key won't insert all the way in the gap. But the gouge could have been deeper.

 

[beastmaster]

Just curious, what the DBH on some of those ponderosas? Here in our local San Bernadino mountains hid a way in niches that were inaccessible to the mule skinners and Mormon loggers of an earlier era are some old growth pondarosa, though not of record height, I have seen 80" at DBH. I had to remove a dying ponderosa(Bark beetles) That was 108",60' up where it split into a schoolmarm.(Is that expression still politically correct?)
Man those are some beautiful and impressive trees. What kind of sick person would girdle a living giant?
Thanks for sharing. Beastmaster

 

[M.D. Vaden]

Just curious, what the DBH on some of those ponderosas? Here in our local San Bernadino mountains hid a way in niches that were inaccessible to the mule skinners and Mormon loggers of an earlier era are some old growth pondarosa, though not of record height, I have seen 80" at DBH. I had to remove a dying ponderosa(Bark beetles) That was 108",60' up where it split into a schoolmarm.(Is that expression still politically correct?)
Man those are some beautiful and impressive trees. What kind of sick person would girdle a living giant?
Thanks for sharing. Beastmaster

The OP link leads to the answer about dbh.

Just scroll down when you get there.

 

[moss]

Damn great trees, I hope there's hope they won't be removed or that the forest around them won't be shredded. I still haven't got over seeing big Sugar Pine for the first time last spring. Great work.
-AJ

 

[M.D. Vaden]

Damn great trees, I hope there's hope they won't be removed or that the forest around them won't be shredded. I still haven't got over seeing big Sugar Pine for the first time last spring. Great work.
-AJ

Sugar Pine is vitually next on the agenda. May need to wait until some snow melts. Maybe April. I recall a huge one in southern Oregon from 3 years ago, and am dissapointed I never took a photo of it.

Lately, I hike with a trekking pole that has camera mount threads. And on that I put a small $25 ball head. Great for horizontal or vertical photos in the forest.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

The news coverage for this began last Sunday, January 23, in a paper with most of the front page plus two thirds of 3A.

Then other various news outlets picked up on the story, too.

KGW NEWS: Claim - New World's Tallest Pine

Someone sent me a hard copy of the paper. This was the layout.

View attachment 170004

 

[rmihalek]

Went on a small expedition with Taylor the big tree guy on January 3rd and today, the 9th. The results of the two day adventure yielded:

4 new world's tallest pines. All Ponderosa.

268.35' ~ 266' ~ 262' ~ 259.5'

And it looks like 8 new tallest known Ponderosa pines.

We also drove up along the Umqua River a ways to the tallest known sugar pine. The sign said 265'. But we came up with 255' using the rangefinder. Snowed coming back down. The area is gorgeous up there: the Umpqua. The photo below is the forest south of the Rogue River where we found the Ponderosa pines.

How was the original measurement made? Did someone climb the tree and drop a line to measure it? How do you calibrate the laser rangefinder?

 

[TreeAce]

Very Cool! But...any idea why someone would girdle a tree like that?? Why? Someone who wants to "get back" at the "treehuggers"?? It wasn't just random senseless vandilism considering whoever did it must have intended to kill it. Not like carving intials in it or spray paint or something, just makes no sense at all. Climbing up some trees like that are on my list of things to do before I die. I would love to go up a gaint sequioa or a redwood.

 

[lostinmidmich]

Impressive. We have some tall white pines in N. Michigan, but these win.

 

[tomtrees58]

man nice love to cut that one

 

[M.D. Vaden]

Went on a small expedition with Taylor the big tree guy on January 3rd and today, the 9th. The results of the two day adventure yielded:

4 new world's tallest pines. All Ponderosa.

268.35' ~ 266' ~ 262' ~ 259.5'

And it looks like 8 new tallest known Ponderosa pines.

We also drove up along the Umqua River a ways to the tallest known sugar pine. The sign said 265'. But we came up with 255' using the rangefinder. Snowed coming back down. The area is gorgeous up there: the Umpqua. The photo below is the forest south of the Rogue River where we found the Ponderosa pines.

How was the original measurement made? Did someone climb the tree and drop a line to measure it? How do you calibrate the laser rangefinder?

There is no real need to climb trees like this anymore to measure. Maybe for an "official" measurement, but in light of the huge gain over the previous tallest pine, a climbing measurement would not alter much. Maybe a centimeter.

We had 3 laser rangefinders, and all were very close.

Calibration for the Impulse laser rangefinder is done at the manufacturer. I believe they also set the alignment for the scope too.

The Impulse is so accurate, that the redwood canopy scientist Sillett wrote that one man, Atkins, can often come within 1 centimeter of his tape drop measurements. That's remarkable technology for the Impulse unit. Aiming up at 350 to 360 foot tall trees and coming within the width of 3 to 4 fingers. And figure that's sometimes having to add and subtract multiple positions to get from the view of the top, back to the base of the tree.

The device inside that interprets the angle its held at has to be remarkably precise. Because its doing all the computations internally.

Apparently, the Trupulse 200 units have stronger beam. But the Impulse has the least margin for error. And that's the one used for the final measurement. Set on a tripod, and using a trigger cable too.

In the image below, you can see the trigger cable. After the crosshairs on the mounted scope are placed on the top piece of foliage, the cable is used for mulitiple readings.

View attachment 171875