Will this qualify for the NH Big Tree List?
This is just one of the white pines on site. It is over 36″ in diameter. For those that remember geometry, to get the circumference of a circle the formula is:
So a 36″ diameter = an 18″ radius (r) so we would multiply 2*3.14*18 which gives us a circumference of 113″.
I bring this up because I stumbled on a website from UNH Extension today that I thought was very interesting.
https://unhcoopext.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Shortlist/index.html?appid=bc24f6238db1475e9d6bc3ef2d061c0f
Sifting through the list I found this chart:
The above snippet is for Eastern White Pine. The yellow column is the circumference values of the tree. At the bottom of the chart you can see that the smallest two are between 92 and 119 inches in circumference. Based on that criteria, the one tree in the photo above would qualify, and there are dozens of big trees like that on TLBF land.
Granted, its not quite that simple, and Geoff Jones told me that there are two other categories that go into the overall score (first column). One of those categories is crown width, the third category is height.
In dense forest like TLBF, the crowns don’t get very wide, because the race for sunlight is UP, not out. So what they may lack for crown width, they will definitely make up for in height.
As we go along in the process, I think that nominating trees for the list to the UNH Extension would potentially be a great project for the JFES kids to participate in.
Let me know your thoughts….