[MassChestnutOrchards] Tree in Conway

[Brian Clark]

I looked at a tree about 2 miles from the center of Conway last night 
(attached pictures).  The owner called a couple days ago, referred by 
a local state forester.  The tree is on top of a hill that was 
heavily logged about 2 years ago.  My GPS indicated about 885 ft 
elevation.  It is 8" DBH and about 45-50' tall, with heavy blossoms 
in the crown (all above 30' unfortunately) and quite a bit of old 
mast on the ground.  I could not find any sign of blight.  I did not 
find any indication of viable nuts in the mast I examined but only 
looked at a dozen or so - a thunderstorm was moving in.  Owner said 
the tree has had a lot of burs the last 2-3 years since he found 
it.  There was what appeared to be a seedling (3-4' tall) about 30 
feet away and a small tree (2-3" diameter) at another spot 30-40 feet 
away (maybe sprout, but not obvious) - no blight evident in these either.

We have apple picking ladders up to 24' tall, but I don't think these 
would work here, even reaching from the top with a hook as the tree 
doesn't have any branches in the middle (below the crown) to set a 
ladder into to hold it away from the trunk far enough to be able to 
reach up into the edges of the crown.  By the way - I can provide one 
of these ladders if there are other places they would work out - they 
are quite light (about 20 lbs) with long spikes on the bottom (drive 
into ground for stability) and can be set into fairly small limbs by 
an experienced user.  It does take some skill and nerve to use these 
around the edge of a big tree as they must be set close to vertical 
when the supporting branches are small.

The woods in the area (same owner) are being logged now (thinning 
under forest management plan guidance) and access to the tree was 
about a mile in from town road, mostly uphill on a logging road.  The 
road is being used by heavy logging equipment now so most of the way 
to the tree was quite wide and driveable although greasy due to rain 
earlier in the day.  I had no trouble in my 4 wheel drive pickup and 
I think a 2 wheel drive with good ground clearance could make it in 
dry conditions.  However the last couple hundred yards is a branch 
off the main logging road, up a steep hill and the brush has grown in 
some since it was used a couple years ago to log the top of the 
hill.  The owner is very interested/supportive and suggested doing 
some road improvement if needed.  I have not had any experience with 
bucket trucks so don't know if the hill was too steep or not.  I 
currently don't have any contacts for a bucket truck either.

The GPS coordinates for the tree are: 42 31.020, 72 41.186 and the 
owner is Jack Lochhead, 130 Reedsbridge Rd., Conway.

I have more, higher resolution pictures I can send to individuals on 
request.  I also collected some leaves, a small branch and burs.  Is 
this something we are interested to pursue for this year (or next)?


Brian Clark
42B Clark Rd.
Ashfield, MA 01330
413-625-2791, cell 507-269-4249
brianeclark at hughes.net
www.applevalleyapples.com  
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