Trunks of Washington

[Cruiser]

Thank you for posting your experience and perspective. This thread is inspiring and a gold nugget of reference. I appreciate your efforts to catalogue and share these impressive behemoths!

I sure hope you continue to share.

I’m glad others find value in these musings. Documenting this stuff is part of my job and a compulsion from which I cannot escape. Not that I want to.

There are forms, features, and processes in the wild that are under or not represented in bonsai but could be. At first glance, many of them are not aesthetically pleasing, they require context to be beautiful. So one of my goals is to provide that context by sharing information about species ecology and stand dynamics.

 

[NashsMan]

I love this thread!
Thanks for posting all these images.

 

[Mike Westervelt]

Pictures rarely do a trunk justice! This one’s 10’ 10”. Dbh above the debris skirt. Total height is 282’.
Over centuries Doug-firs shed enough bark and debris to create a mound around their bases, effectively raising the ground level around themselves. As far as I know, they do not layer, so the actual root base is probably a good 5’ beneath the mound.

Please tell me this ancient giant is not slated for harvest.

 

[Cruiser]

Please tell me this ancient giant is not slated for harvest.

It’s in a National Park, so no harvesting. Also, it’s protected old growth and probably has a name.
Even if someone wanted to harvest it, extraction would be a logistical nightmare or impossible given the surrounding property.

There are no large mills left in the state that can handle a tree like this.
After most giants were cut in the 18 and early 1900s mills did away with that equipment. The ideal size nowadays is much smaller. A top end diameter of 26” is considered over-size.

My take is that it is morally wrong to cut trees of this caliber.

 

[Cruiser]

Lightning damage in a Douglas-fir. Enough time has passed for the resulting trunk deadwood to rot away.


Lightning damage in a western hemlock. Deadwood still remains but is starting to break apart.


Humongous dwarf Alberta spruce



Widespread logging has resulted in root-over-stump trees. Many are western hemlock.


Roots may eventually envelope the nurse-stump.


Less common, Douglas-fir root over stump.


Massive Douglas-fir in a farmers field. I’d like to get measurements one day.

 

[Cruiser]

Western hemlock


Old Douglas-fir leave trees.




Young leave trees with Mt Rainier in the distance.

Cruising takes one to beautiful places.






Parks can be great places to study tree forms.
Classic elms.


Incense cedar with numerous reiterations.


Sitka spruce

 

[Mike Westervelt]

Massive Douglas-fir in a farmers field. I’d like to get measurements one day.

Is that on Hwy 12?

 

[Cruiser]

Is that on Hwy 12?

Yeah. Sounds like you’ve noticed it as well!
A titan of a tree, out there all alone.

 

[Mike Westervelt]

yep, been noticing it for 45 years

 

[oranjeaap]

Would be an interesting style for a bonsai. including sloped pot.

 

[Cruiser]

Coring old trees.

western hemlock 19.6” 264 rings @ dbh



Douglas-fir 11.6”
347 rings @ dbh

2.4 average rings/mm. Some parts of the core have 5 rings/mm.


In addition to bark appearance, gnarly and proportionally thick branching can indicate older trees.


A few oddballs.

 

[Kievnstavick]

What do you do to the would after coring?

is it filled with a glue or do you leave it to fill up with resins?

 

[Cruiser]

What do you do to the would after coring?

is it filled with a glue or do you leave it to fill up with resins?

Some cores get saved to prove stand age. Most get popped back into their trunk holes. Trees are quick to address the tiny wound either way.

 

[Cruiser]

Latest cruise.

Stands of silver fir, hemlock, Douglas-fir, and noble fir.

Some trunks contain frost check.

Silver fir and hemlock seedlings survive at a snails pace in the understory.


It’s unusual to see an exposed nebari in a forest tree. Most root bases are beneath duff, vegetation, or other organic debris.

Mistletoe infections. Unusual growths and contortions.



Silver fir and hemlock are shallow rooters. They sometimes get thrown even within the shelter of a stand.

 

[Cruiser]

Latest cruise…

Western red cedar

Woodpecker holes

I occasionally see black bears, though I’m sure they (and cougars) see me frequently.

An aging silver fir. Bark is just beginning to break apart.

Noble fir cones at the very top of a tree. Tantalizingly out of reach.

A dead yew. Form like this is common in older understory trees. They grow erect, then get bent or knocked over and develop new leaders along the trunk.

Beyond the cruise. Regenerating noble fir stand on a hill top.