Nice find! I see it's already in the Gymnosperm Database

Resin

Here is a link that might be useful: Pinus ponderosa subsp. benthamiana

That was a pretty speedy update. I was looking at another page there a few days ago and didn't even think to see if the entry was added. That's a really nice website.

Taylor keeps a pretty generous amount of photos at his site landmarktrees.net of various trees, including some of the Australia stuff.

Awesome! I didn't realize ponderosa could get so tall.

Fantastic while incredible! Several thoughts jump out here.First, the outclassing of sugar pine puts a whole new sheen on the hard pines, and necessitates a re-write of that "sugar pine is the world's tallest pine" paragraph in countless tree books (including my own). This is now a distinction that sugar pine has lost, but will probably not be acknowledged by many for some years to come.
Second, it should be a huge embarrassment to the Forest Service that such notable trees as this ponderosa group has lurked, unknown to them, in a National Forest of their keeping. Such ignorance of the resource is quite inexcusable.I would suggest quick publicity for the pines before the FS puts them up for sale!
Third, the clustering of these giants suggests there is "something in the water" here. Age data are badly needed, and detailed topographic, meteorological and ecological descriptions of the (unusual?) habitat. There's an opportunity for some work to be done.

Wonderful!

The Ponderosa dominates the landscape around here, and it's nice to see
that it's an established champion.


Josh

pinetree30...

Hold that thought until like next summer. I think Taylor is ready to go on a sugar pine rampage this year. Its very possible that taller and bigger exist, unknown so far.

But here's something else of interest too. The 268 foot ponderosa looked to have a broken out top with a tall re-sprout. And the trunk-top stub diameter connotes that this tree was like 280 feet, or more in the past.

Great news & congratulations. That's just awesome you guys have struck gold more than once.

I wish I was with ya, what else can I say.

Dax

A wonderful pine and quite educational to someone like me who thought most Pines topped out at around 90-120 feet tall. Those are true behemoths!

-Will

It can't re-sprout; rather it turns up one or more branches just below a break. Grubbing around on the ground may yield a partially decayed top that can be measured to re-construct total height -- but I imagine you have already looked for that.

Another thought -- Is it your impression that the big-tree area also hosts oversized specimens of other conifers, like Douglas-fir, white fir, or incense-cedar? Does this seem to be an island of superior conditions in a sea of the ordinary? Or do the ponderosas appear to be a group of likely-related trees of exceptional character?
The sort of data I suggested in an earlier post would be helpful in interpreting this situation.
But, hell, it's the numbers that count just now!

"But here's something else of interest too. The 268 foot ponderosa looked to have a broken out top with a tall re-sprout. And the trunk-top stub diameter connotes that this tree was like 280 feet, or more in the past"

Unless it was a shorter top, which has broken several times over a long period? That would also give a large stub diameter, without the need for great height.

"Does this seem to be an island of superior conditions in a sea of the ordinary?"

Or maybe trees that size were three a penny (two a cent!) 200 years ago, before 99.8% were cut?

Resin

Oops, forgot to hit submit after preview.

There were no other species that jumped out as unusually big or tall. The area offers good wind-protection, residual snow up on slopes, depth of soil, and moisture availability.

Lots of big healthy Douglas fir too, but nothing gigantic big. Saw a stump of like 7' to 8' diameter for Psuedotsuga, and several 5' to 6' diameter trunks.

Great topic! My wife and I spent several days last summer getting granite rocks for our rock garden in the Crystal Basin area of the El Dorado National Forest here in Northern California. We saw these two large pines next to the road and am sure they are not the tallest in the area but than how do you measure height with no instruments? The first pic is a ponderosa with my 5'8" wife hugging. The next pic is a blurry pic of me at 6' high next to a sugar pine. These are very massive trees but am not sure how girth size at base relates to height.

Pinetree30 is right on about our Forest Service being ignorant of what they have. When I ask questions about the trees they seem to have no clue what they have or where they're located. Maybe I didn't ask the right person or they're feeling budget cuts?

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If you walk into a NF visitor center you won't be likely to be able to talk about specific trees with anyone standing there unless they happen to be the naturalist or other privy party.

Yes, let's keep in mind that the biggest examples of each species may have been cut down long ago, skewing comparisons made between individuals holding out in remaining tiny scraps of western North American old growth.

It is true that there are scraps left. A percentage of what was available.

Seems that many old records after logging were for log volumes, not trunk length or height.

The reason that the forest service can't help you is because they're not set up for that kind of thing - they're set up to be a middleman agency between the government and the timber companies. It's not their job to conserve, and the only reason they would "inventory" their land is to be able to sell lumber.

Kind of astonishing that old growth continues to be pillaged and cut in this day and age. Also very ridiculous and idiotic.

It was time to stop cutting all US old growth over 50 years ago. Instead there were additional waves of clear cutting resulting in the extensive denudation of public and private lands we are left with today. Perhaps the most tragic was the elimination of most of the last coast redwoods during the 1970s, something that even some timber interests in the area now admit was a mistake - an orgy of resource exploitation.

Thank G-d there are a few of these giants left.

Josh

Great news about the find and congratulations! From this and what I've seen at Big Bend, it looks like there's probably more large tree finds out there, particularly in off-the-beaten-track areas. A dedicated tree nut may yet find record trees. What's been done here took guts, dedication, and time.
Kudos once again on your find. Hopefully these trees will be preserved.

Most, if not all, mills around here are no longer able to handle real big trees. Maybe the old growth trees have a better chance than we thought.
Mike

A news man and photographer came out to see the pine area this week.

It may be in the Mail Tribune like Sunday or next week. The southern Oregon newspaper and site out of Medford area.

Also had a chance to meet Frank Callahan too, a person who has nominated some trees to the Oregon big tree registry and does a lot of hiking and exploring down that way. Wish I had met him when we lived near there between 2005-2008.