100 year old Aspen Bearing Trees

I've looked for Aspen BT's but that is the first ones I've ever seen (a picture that is). They generally don't live much past a hundred years. Must be a good healthy aspen patch.

Quakie "stems" are generally rather short lived (40-150 years), although sometimes (rarely) MUCH longer. Being a clonal colony, the root system can live for tens of thousands of years (the Pando Grove in Central Utah is dated at 80,000 years, with average an "stem age" of 130 years). The largest "stems" on record are 4-4.5 feet in diameter, but I don't recall seeing anything bigger than 30-36 in 45+ years of wandering around the Aspen Groves of the West.

I have seen 130+ year old Aspen Bearing Trees that are 12 inches or less in diameter, and still healthy though.

"Bark scribed" aspens of this vintage are RARE, most were "blazed and scribed," which, IMO, shortened their lifespan considerably.

Loyal

> I really like how they show that the bark "grows" in pretty much one direction (around).

Yes, you probably could estimate the diameter of the tree when marked just by the aspect ratio of the inscribed letters.

Here's what one of the images of the aspens looks like reduced by a factor of 0.40 in the horizontal direction only:

and here's the other:

If the circular arcs of letters and numbers were made with a tree scribe with a gimlet point, probably adjusting the scale factor until the circular features were as circular as possible, rather than just by eye, would be a good choice.

Aspens are an interesting plant. A couple years ago I was back recovering some photo control I'd done 20 years before. I thought I remembered where one of the points was, I'd set it about 20 feet just south of the aspen grove in the small brush. Just couldn't find it. After recovering enough of the other control to stake it out I found my point in very good condition about 20 feet inside the aspen grove. So that plant had advanced about 40 feet. I've also seen places where they got disease and huge areas are dying out and laying all which way on the ground. I seen what I thought where huge aspens but like you in the 30-36 inch diameter range (and very tall). A 4-1/2 footer would really set me back for a look.

That's some great pictures!

I'm still hoping for a gamble oak bearing bush. Notes will say, 2 inch oak. I think oak clumps live for 1000's of years also, but the stems, branches don't. So from found stones with gamble oak BT's I've found the oak clumps in place but so far never the mark.

I've seen a few Gamble Oak BTs, but the "best ones" were cut ~3-4 ft. above the ground at the time of scribing, and have been "help upright" by the surrounding stems for the last 120-130 years.

I've seen Oaks in California around Copperopolis (don't remember the species), that were scribed in the 1850s, and still recoverable. Unfortunately, most had rotted from the inside out, and the only scribing left was the relief portion that grew INTO the scribing.

Loyal

I doubt that a "gimbal point scribe" was used in this case. The nature of the "marks" look (to me) more like a series of "points" possibly done with a sharp punch or awl.

All of the original corner monuments on this survey were hewed Aspen posts, and all that remains today are bits and pieces, or rotted remains of the base in the ground.

Hard to say whether he even had a "timber scribe" with him that day.

Loyal

> Hard to say whether he even had a "timber scribe" with him that day.

Well, isn't the main point that he was making letters according to some regular pattern that wasn't remarkablty elongated or squashed? If you scale the images you've posted by different scale factors in the horizontal axis only, you get variations, some of which look like what someone would mark the tree with and others that don't. Just pointing out that detail, in case you hadn't considered it.

In Texas, using that same scaling technique is a great way to restore marks that appear as scars on the bark of Live Oaks to what was actually cut into them as long ago as the 1850's (and in the process estimating the change in diameters of the tree).

> Well, isn't the main point that he was making letters according to some regular pattern that wasn't remarkablty elongated or squashed?

Of course!

I'm sure that you meant "remarkably"

B-)

> I'm sure that you meant "remarkably"

Yes, that's what I posted. I have no idea how it came out otherwise. :>

Aspen Scaled by 0.35

Just as a point of curiosity, what is the ratio of actual 2014 diameter to reported 1904 diameter for this tree? The scale factor that looks about right is 0.35 = 1904/2014.

Copperopolis

I've done some work in the townsite, following the work of a mineral surveyor named J.H. Finley.
I remember recovering a lot corner for Charley Stone, an old gentleman affectionately called the Mayor of Copperopolis. This was in the eighties.
Charley looked at the monument I'd just uncovered and said "That ain't nothing but an old rat tail file."
Then I showed him a copy of Finley's notes which I recall as being from the 1920's or 30's.
"...set rat tail file.":-)

That smiley face is mine, not Finley's, by the way.

Don

Copperopolis

Copperopolis is my pee-and-tea stop (unload "processed" iced tea, get some fresh iced tea) on our drive to Yosemite every summer. The new commercial center there is a little too cute for my taste, but since the store on Main Street closed it's kind of the only game in town.

That is one Jim Dandy of a find Loyal. We have small scattered stands of aspens here but I've never encountered a bearing tree aspen. That's got to be a rare find - tortoises live longer than most aspens.

Are you familiar with the Basque sheepherder's tree carvings ("Arborglyphs")? I went to a presentation about Basque history in the Great Basin and the speaker showed lots of examples of Basque tree art. Some very well done, some crude and lots of very racy images. And to his credit he gave very general information about their locations "This is near the Pueblo Mountains... This is near Paradise Valley...". These things are best stumbled upon.

Some Basque carving from the web:

As a side note, my favorite tree carving is this sentimental message I found on a juniper:

Copperopolis

I just set corners at our Altaville Forest Fire Station, partly in and partly out of the Altaville Townsite (now in Angel's Camp). Record of Survey went off to Calaveras County Surveyor the next day. I had it done a year ago but we didn't get back there until this week.

Aspen Scaled by 0.35

6 month old Surveyor Jameson Karoly studied Kent's photo intently for several minutes. I expect his report soon.

Aspen Scaled by 0.35

Pamper or cloth?

Aspen Scaled by 0.35

Luvs disposable.