re: Measuring trees for Louisiana/National big tree registry

that tree gets DQed. no way to make single measurement at 4'6". Half your circumference is air.

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1. Measure the distance around the trunk of the tree, in inches, at 4 ½ feet above ground level. This point is called the diameter breast height (dbh).
2. If the tree forks at or below 4 ½ feet, record the smallest trunk circumference below the lowest fork. Record the height at which the measurement was taken. Trees should be considered separate if the circumference measurement below the lowest fork places the measurement on the ground
3. If the tree is on a slope, measure 4 ½ feet up the trunk on the high and low sides of the slope. The dbh is the average between both points. If the tree is on a steep slope, take the measurement at 4 ½ feet above the midpoint of the trunk.
4. If the tree is leaning, measure the circumference at 4 ½ feet along the axis of the trunk. Make sure the measurement is taken at a right (90 degree) angle to the trunk.

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from this site LINK

Interestingly, no Bama fans have posted in this thread

BTW, by registering, what occurs?

Just because its cool to identify the largest of a kind of tree in the state. I don't get anything out of it. But people do "tree tours" and the Louisiana Association of Foresters keeps records for this stuff.

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Fair enough, Do you get a historical marker or plaque or something?

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No idea on this one. It goes on their list that gets published every March in LA.

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This?

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I have measured many Cottonwoods bigger than the record of 61.75" dbh. None of those women like the ones in the Live Oak society would ever be able to see them though. Too hard getting there. There are a lot of cypress trees in this state that haven't ever been recorded. By a lot, I mean I have seen probably 100 that I would call real big. Nobody would want to get to them though

On another note, foresters would measure that tree 3.5ft up from where it is a solid trunk, so yeah, you gots 4 trees.

Just think, if you were to measure every tree at the base, trees with butt swell(cypress, ash, tupelo) would be at the tops of the list. Some at the base can have a 60" butt diameter with a 12-16" dbh

I looked at my old Forest Measurements book and it says this:

If a tree forks immediately above dbh, it is measured below the swell resulting from the double stem. Stems that fork below dbh are considered two seperate trees, and diameters are measured approximately 3.5ft above the fork. Cypress, tupelo gum, and other swell-butted species are measured 1.5ft above the pronounced swell if the swell is more than 3ft high.

I am not sure on how the tree registry people are gonna rule on that b/c their definition leaves an open interpretation of the rule. Sort of like, it matters who comes and takes the measurement. LFA will most probably rule that it is 4 trees because of the forestry standard measurement process. I have measured cypress, tupelo, and ash trees where the butt swell was all of the way to 5 or 6ft, and I would consider your tree to be 4 based on the fact that you have to cut it 4 different times


Here is a tree in Mandeville that has all kinds of forks in it, but they are above 4.5ft so it counts as 1 tree. You can clearly see ground level on this tree

I don't know that rules are even needed. I can clearly see at least two distinct trees that just happened to grow up close to one another. What's going on behind them, I have no idea.

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Is there some definitive way you are telling it is two distinct trees, or is it just the way it looks?

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Just the way it looks. Grew up with pecans. they always shoot up in a single stalk. That fork would have had to have been there from the very beginning.

Look at the center mass. You can see a joint and not a fork. Two tree grew up so close together that they ended up merging.

Just an opinion from someone who is not an arborist or botanist. It does not look like a split resulting in multiple remainders. It lookes like normally formed trunks.