Hello all,
Today I went tree hunting in a grove of big trees across the street from where I live. The area is private property, so ask first. From a distance (my front porch) I had seen large crowns, but I was uncertain of how big the trees actually were. So I went out to look. The first tree I came to was the largest of the bunch, and the third largest known Ponderosa Pine in the county. It was 17′ 3″ CBH, or a DBH of 5.53′. It was previously measured by me (almost a month ago on my first expedition) using a clinometer for the Tangent method. The problem with this method is that it makes the (obviously erroneous) assumption that the top is directly over the base. The Tangent measurement was 83.4′ in height, but my new Nikon Forestry Pro laser rangefinder debunked that height and measured it out at 134.0′. The Nikon Forestry Pro uses a Sine-based height routine and is accurate within one foot or less of the actual height.
Then I measured the other two largest in the grove. One measured out at 15′ 8″ CBH and 132.0′ tall, and the other was 14′ 4″ CBH and 130.0′ tall. Afterwards I got back on my bike to head home, but not before taking a picture of the bulls chewing their cud within 70 feet of me-and there were no fences between me and the bulls while I was measuring. Yikes! Now for the photos:




Duncan