Measuring Our Trees

Some years back we started measuring the Sequoias and Ponderosas and Redwoods that we had planted to see how fast they grew. Or just because Johnny was a forester and foresters measure DBH (diameter at breast height) of trees. But, alas, we cannot find wherever we wrote down those early measurements. (news flash!! I just read earlier posts in this Trees blog and found the measurements!! I will now add them to this post.) 

Today, January 17, 2022, the 13th birthday of our youngest grandson, Cedrus, and the 22nd birthday of our surrogate granddaughter Kinnera, we decided to celebrate by measuring the largest of each species of our trees. (The grandkids have always enjoyed wandering through our trees and Cedrus was, after all, named for one.) The only way I know to keep from losing today's measurements is by putting them into a blog post. So here they are...

Adding a few photos taken January 21, 2022, Johnny's 79th birthday... and later...

 

Arboretum Trees

Giant Sequoia, first one on perimeter path, 68.5 inches circumference which converts to 21.8 inches diameter (DBH). In 2017, it measured 15.1 DBH

 

 

 

Incense Cedar, near birch tree and near path in Redwood/Sequoia grove

Redwood, first one planted, named the Peace Pilgrim tree, 46.75 which equals 14.9 DBH. In 2017, it measured 10.8 DBH

Ponderosa Pine, behind the Ponderosa sign at the beginning of the pine grove, first trees planted in the arboretum, back in 1998 49.75 which equals 15.8 DBH. In 2017, it measured 13.5 DBH

 

We have also planted trees in what we call the Lake Pasture, because it used to flood every winter... before we filled it with trees. So today we decided to measure the biggest of those trees, too.

Giant Sequoia, 59, 18.8 DBH so not as big as the biggest one in the arboretum but bigger than many of them there. Maybe I'll get photos of these trees someday.

Sitka Spruce, 32.25, 10.27 DBH.

 

Hybrid Poplar 49.25, 15.7 DBH. This is the largest of the hybrid poplars planted in 1995 in the west most section of the lake pasture at the trail junction. These trees lost a lot of branches in our Feb. ice storm in 2021. That proved a blessing as their buds were at just the right stage to make Balm of Gilead... and we made lots of it!

 

 

Woodland Trees, not planted by us

Douglas Fir 118, 37.6 DBH. On the east side of the main trail 

Douglas Fir 138, 44.0 DBH. on the east side of the main trail to Agency Creek, across from where the Hobbit Trail takes off westward

Douglas Fir 130, 41.4 DBH, junction of old trail (now challenging due to storm downfalls) and main trail to Agency Creek

(I just remembered a Western Red Cedar Tree that we did plant years ago on the Agency Creek trail that we forgot about today and will have to measure another time.) Did measure it on Johnny's birthday 24", 7.6 DBH

 

Pump Pasture Trees

Big Maple, this is a huge old tree with a giant burl at the base. It is at the edge of what we call the Pump Pasture because our well house is there. 162, DBH 51.6  

 

Grand Fir 89.5, 28.5 DBH. This tree is at the edge of our little creek across the field from the Big Maple

A subset of the Pump Pasture is the Horse Grove Trees, so named because the horses have made trails through there in the shade of the many big firs. We just measured the biggest.

Doug Fir double tree 167 for 53.2 DBH

 

Grand Fir (Hawk Tree) 137, 43.6DBH This is the big snaggle topped tree we see from the barn that often has a Red-tailed Hawk sitting at the top... or sometimes a Bald Eagle.

Friend Mary and Johnny by the Hawk Tree

 

Swamp Forest

This is a lowland area along Agency Creek that was full of Alder trees when we moved here, floods annually, where we planted Redwoods, Western Red Cedar, Port Orford Cedar and Incense Cedar. They did not do much until the Alders began falling  and opening up the canopy so we did not measure many there. There were a couple big Douglas Firs in there that are still upright and we measured one of those.

Douglas Fir 149, 47.5 DBH

Oregon Ash 60, 19.1 DBH

Port Orford Cedar 18, 5.7 DBH

Three Cedars Trail

A slightly higher elevation area of the Swamp Forest has more surviving cedars and Redwoods that we planted long ago. They are still fighting their way upward.

Redwood 22.5, 7.2 DBH

Western Red Cedar 15, 4.8 DBH

On our way back, we measured some of the trees that form our eastern property line, that we planted when we moved here in 1970 or soon after.

Douglas Fir 78.5, 25.0 DBH

Douglas Fir 67, 21.3 DBH

And on Jan. 26, we measured the sequoia that sits in the corner of the B hay field, adjacent to the A field and the barn field. I planted it there years ago to provide shade for the animals. However, the goats like to eat their shade so we put a fence around to keep them out.

Giant Sequoia 66,  21 DBH

 

  

Sitka Spruce 2020

My love affair with Sitka Spruce continues. Fast forward now to 2020. The Sitkas planted years ago are still going up. And so I decided to plant more in another patch of impenetrable Himalaya blackberry vines. I cleared openings just big enough to plant a baby tree, put a very tall bamboo pole next to it with a pink ribbon on top, and planted 11 Sitkas.

This was my first time to order from LeBeau Bamboo Nursery in Medford, OR. I am very impressed with the quality of the trees I received. Plus I paid for ten but they sent me eleven. All with lots of fibrous roots. I felt a little guilty sticking these lovely trees in the middle of berry patches, but I have faith in these remarkable trees. And I just cannot clear all this land of berries. My husband is a forester and says spruce don't need sunlight to get started, like Doug Firs do. Good thing!

Here are the Sitkas, in the background, that I planted earlier and have fought there way up and over everything.

The sequoia (left) grew so fast it outpaced everything, but I kept the berries at bay around it for several years. The evergreen to the far right is a Sitka I did not baby. It is currently outgrowing the sequoia. The little sitka front left is from a later planting.

Sitkas up and above the riffraff

This one and the next two are from the later planting several years ago. They had to work hard to get up through the brush and berries.

This one was planted near the Alaska Yellow Cedars in hopes it would keep the deer from destroying the cedars. It did not. I have to hang bags of smelly dog hair on the cedars to keep the deer from rubbing the velvet off their antlers on the trees, breaking and debarking them in the process. The deer don't rub on prickly spruce!



Another Sitka in the Alaska Yellow Cedar grove...

 Here are the 11 new Sitkas. Very difficult to pick them out at the bottom of their bamboo, pink-ribboned poles. Here's hoping they make it!

Smoke Bushes

Before I decided to make different areas of our arboretum into different regions of the world, I planted stuff helter skelter as I came across "good deals". One of those good deals was a raft of seedling Smoke Bushes... no guarantees that they would turn purple but they were very cheap if I took all of them. So I did. And planted them everywhere in the arboretum except the western U.S. with its towering pines and sequoias.

Then I forgot about them. The arboretum evolved into Japan, China, Europe, etc., all of it, or most of it, invaded by little smoke bushes that grew in spite of lack of care. Now, many years later, they are still surviving and providing a wide range of colors as they poke their way through tall grasses. Some are the proper purple, others are green, but most all turn colorful in the fall.

Today, October 1st, 2018, I decided to take photos of all of them and give them an entry all their own. So here they are, the long neglected and unheralded Fink Family Farm Arboretum Smoke Bushes, Cotinus coggygria.

 

Sequoias

Not long after planting Ponderosa Pines at the far end of the arboretum, I planted Giant Sequoias. They have done amazingly well. Apparently, they don't mind having wet feet all winter and dry feet all summer. The arboretum, especially at the far end where the pines are, is pretty swampy six months of the year.

Johnny measured this Sequoia on 11/24/17 at 15.1" DBH

The Ponderosa Pines are taller but the Sequoias are bigger around. As of 11/24/17, the biggest Sequoia was 15.1" diameter; Redwood 10.8", Ponderosa 13.5".

Yews vs. Hemlocks (and Firs)

I planted both baby yew trees and baby hemlocks under the Ponderosa Pines in our arboretum a few years ago. But most did not survive. However, one did quite well. Unfortunately, I did not know which it was. Both have flat needles. Hemlocks get droopy tops when they grow up but this one is not that big. So I consulted google and learned that hemlocks and firs have white lines on the back side of the needles. Yews do not.

My strong survivor had no white lines. It's a yew: Western Yew, Taxus brevifolia.

Recently, I discovered two tiny rather pitiful yew/hemlocks that I thought had died, so I turned over their tiny branches and discovered no white lines. They are yews.

I could find no hemlocks in our woods, but I checked the back sides of the fir trees, something I had never done before. And, sure enough, they had white lines!

Douglas Fir... Pseudotsuga menziesii

Grand Fir... Abies grandis

The undersides of evergreen needles seem to hold more information than the tops.