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Pruned the old Japanese maple first time back in early 2011. Here is the fall color in November of the same year. 14 feet tall. This is a weeping Japanese maple. Pruned for:
M. D. Vaden of Oregon | Arborist | Certified
Here is a wide angle photo of a bigleaf maple tree in NE Portland. The maple burl is about 9 feet wide at ground level even though the maple is barely 25 feet tall.
More wide angle photos are now available on my new page:
M. D. Vaden Wide Angle and Fisheye Photos
Have a great day !!
During the past year, a new section of trail has been under construction on the way down to Tall Trees Grove in Redwood National Park.
Tunnel through log
Far too few people visit this grove. The permit limit is about 52 per day. And its probably rare when they ever issue that many per day. In late autumn and winter, just a handful of people hike down there.
Some of the biggest coast redwoods are near the bottom near Redwood Creek in the flat. But one nice feature about this hike are the mixed species of trees including Douglas fir, Tanoak, Chinquapin and more.
There is a refreshing grove of enormous Bigleaf Maples at the downstream end of the grove, with wide-reaching horizontal limbs.
More: Berry Glen Trail in Redwood National Park
The photo shows a tunnel cut from a log in the new section of trail.
One more photo of Del Norte Titan.
Been a couple of years, but finally got another shot of Del Norte Titan in the Grove of Titans on a rainy day. I think this redwood looks best in a photo when there is mist and rain drops.
This is one of the photos available for 11 x 14 prints. See:
Here is a short introduction to the Grove of Titans in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.
Maybe you are already familiar with these giant redwoods from an article, or maybe Preston’s book called “The Wild Trees”.
The photo to the right is Del Norte Titan, one of those big redwoods.
To spare space here, you can find reams more info about these from my Redwoods information page.
See Coast Redwoods Information
Several redwoods have a separate page. Look for Lost Monarch, Del Norte Titan and Screaming Titans.
For now, I’m not planning to distribute a map.
A few folks have found the grove, but any wear was inconsequential, even reversing in 2009.
Just finished a big transition in our back yard a couple of weeks ago. We still have a few small trees to plant, and the vegetable garden in the corner to work on. But it’s 80% complete now.
Self-installed by: M. D. Vaden Landscape, Design and Tree
We replaced lawn with decorative rock and a paver patio, plus hemlock bark. The building is a detatched guest room we put up last autumn. Its on blocks to spare the Douglas fir tree roots. The tree is behind it, about 7′ behind.
Edit > August 2010, we decided on some lawn afterall. Worked out nicely, allowing the backfill soil at the wall to settle with late spring rains.
Copyright 2009 ~ Mario Vaden
A large and very old redwood tree with unusually shaped growth next to the trunk.
Ever had any friends in the window cleaning business who told you that glass is really a liquid, and slowly flows over decades or centuries. Even historic buildings like churches have thicker panes at the bottom. So is this true? I’ll get back to that.
The tree in the photo is a very old coast redwood near the Grove of Titans. Can you see growth alongside the left side of the trunk? It does have a sprouted stem on top of it, and its not apparent if some part of it was a dangling branch at one point in time. But its laying to tight against the main trunk to be just a branch. In some ways it looks like a growth sometimes referred to as a lignotuber, more so than a burl.
In Jedediah Smith Redwoods, and other redwood parks, the redwood trees occassionally make this kind of growth, which almost seems like flowing tissue, as if it were wooden lava. Flowing so slowly that its undetectable to the human eye. Similar to how icicles form over weeks or months,
Whatever you want to call this, and however long it takes, it does not flow, and there is nothing liquid about the state of the wood tissue. It’s all a matter of cell division and growth, but sort of unusual compared to many we see along the trail.
Likewise, glass is not a liquid, but is solid. Glass is generally classed as an amorphous solid rather than a liquid, having all mechanical properties of a solid.
In historic buildings, the antique glass which is centuries old, was made by glass blowers who spun glass, causing the edges to be slightly thicker. It did not flow thicker at the bottom of the panes over time, it was made that way. The thicker edges were intentionally put at the bottom of the frame to reduce water or condensation accumulation around the lead. And a few pieces have been found where the thicker edge is up, and the thinner edge down: likely an oversight or carelessness back in that day.
In the redwoods, if you have not seen this kind of unusual growth before, slow down a bit when you hike and look at a few more redwoods. Glance deeper into the forest and see what you can find.
Boy Scout Tree Trail in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
This is one of the best trails in the north redwood parks between Avenue of the Giants and the Smith River. Jedediah Smith redwoods is between Hiouchi on Highway 199 and Crescent City on Highway 101. To reach the trailhead, you need to use the old Howland Hill Road through the midst of the park.
There is a small waterfall near the end of the trail, called Fern Falls. The Boyscout Tree, after which the trail is named, is about 80% of the way to the end. Its not marked. But at some point in the hike, you should notice a worn path going up a hillside to the right. That’s the path to take. The tree is only a couple of hundred feet or so off the main trail.
One of my favorite areas along the trail, is a huge fern glade, part of which is in the photograph seen here. A wide open vista of western sword ferns, and redwood tree trunks.
For specifics, visit this site and find Jedediah Smith redwoods:
Two books written by Robert Van Pelt
The two books are:
Identifying Mature and Old Forests in Western Washington
And …
Identifying Old Trees and Forests in Eastern Washington
These may not be available for sale. But if you are into heavy-hitting tree information, and can put the information to practical use, maybe contact the Washington State Department of Natural Resources for a lead.
Robert Van Pelt provides in depth information about the forests of Washington. The back cover describes Van Pelt as a research ecologist at the University of Washington, where he received both his Ms and PhD. He is currently involved with canopy research of the the world’s tallest trees: Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, coast redwood and giant sequoia around the west coast states, and mountain ash down under in Australia.
These booklets, like the forest giant book he wrote, become facinating the deeper I get into them. These two are almost like a Dicotomous Key & Forest ID book rolled into one. This is such an experienced approach to identifying forest types, that I’m going to have to read through these twice, maybe three times. It’s not hard to understand. But there is a lot of information.
A review of his Forest Giant book is included here:
A Sitka Spruce tree at Oswald West State Park in Oregon. 2008
This particular tree in that park reminds me of a big dinosaur: the trunk shaped like a neck, and the roots like legs. The tree is a Sitka Spruce, and most likely germinated on top of a stump or log which is mostly decayed by now. I call this spruce Jurassic Tree.
There are plenty of Sitka Spruce in the park, as well as other evergreens like Western Hemlock.
There is plenty of parking. The lots fill up in summer, but in Autumn, Winter and Spring, there are plenty of spaces open, if not most of them. Trails lead east and west from the parking area. The beach is accessible using the trail too.
Located between Manzanita and Cannon Beach.
12/01/2011
mdvaden
Trees, Forests and Photography 