[CANUFNET] Appraisal of trees and estimating the age of trees

Fri Mar 19 11:40:58 EDT 2021

I understand the use of incremental bore samples and I do know that age does not matter, to those of us who know trees and are "in the choir". But is seems that to the lay person, age comes into play when looking at preservation.
How many times have we heard, "save that tree because it is 200 years old"? We do not often hear "save that tree because it has a canopy cover of 70 square meters" which is often the case for older larger trees. Or how about "save that tree because it is a tree". How many larger trees are saved through that argument?
As a municipal arborist, I know the difficulties of preserving are older larger trees, especially when towns in fill through development of older heritage sites or areas. 
Knowing size, AGE, canopy coverage, root coverage and the benefits of preserving these larger, older trees can be helpful in our tool boxes for preserving healthy mature trees. The lay person needs to know all this, but we always look at age before the other tools. Tell me if I am wrong?

Mark Carroll
ISA Certified Arborist, Qualified Arborist Tech
All around nice guy
Taking our environment first
Thanks for connecting...

  On Fri., 19 Mar. 2021 at 11:23 a.m., Jalil Hashemi<jalil.hashemi at oakville.ca> wrote:   #yiv9557263681 P.yiv9557263681ImprintUniqueID {MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;}#yiv9557263681 LI.yiv9557263681ImprintUniqueID {MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;}#yiv9557263681 DIV.yiv9557263681ImprintUniqueID {MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;}#yiv9557263681 TABLE.yiv9557263681ImprintUniqueIDTable {MARGIN:0cm 0cm 0pt;}#yiv9557263681 DIV.yiv9557263681Section1 {}#yiv9557263681 -- filtered {}#yiv9557263681 filtered {}#yiv9557263681 p.yiv9557263681MsoNormal, #yiv9557263681 li.yiv9557263681MsoNormal, #yiv9557263681 div.yiv9557263681MsoNormal {margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:New serif;}#yiv9557263681 a:link, #yiv9557263681 span.yiv9557263681MsoHyperlink {color:#0563C1;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv9557263681 a:visited, #yiv9557263681 span.yiv9557263681MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:#954F72;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv9557263681 p.yiv9557263681MsoListParagraph, #yiv9557263681 li.yiv9557263681MsoListParagraph, #yiv9557263681 div.yiv9557263681MsoListParagraph {margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:New serif;}#yiv9557263681 p.yiv9557263681msonormal0, #yiv9557263681 li.yiv9557263681msonormal0, #yiv9557263681 div.yiv9557263681msonormal0 {margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:New serif;}#yiv9557263681 span.yiv9557263681EmailStyle18 {font-family:sans-serif;color:#1F497D;}#yiv9557263681 .yiv9557263681MsoChpDefault {font-size:10.0pt;}#yiv9557263681 filtered {}#yiv9557263681 div.yiv9557263681WordSection1 {}#yiv9557263681 filtered {}#yiv9557263681 filtered {}#yiv9557263681 filtered {}#yiv9557263681 filtered {}#yiv9557263681 filtered {}#yiv9557263681 filtered {}#yiv9557263681 filtered {}#yiv9557263681 filtered {}#yiv9557263681 filtered {}#yiv9557263681 filtered {}#yiv9557263681 ol {margin-bottom:0cm;}#yiv9557263681 ul {margin-bottom:0cm;}#yiv9557263681 

Hi Mark,

Search Dr. Paula Pepper under growth algorithm and Allometric equations subjects and you might find many helpful research papers done in US modeling the correlation between tree size (DBH, height) and Age. There were two researches completed by two Master of Forest Conservation graduates from University of Toronto in Oakville, Canada. One published in Urban Forestry and Urban Greening.

However, as these correlations can be heavily altered by various factors (soil texture, volume, weather, available growth space, location, etc.), your estimated age will not be as accurate as taking a core sample using increment borer. So depending on how accurate you want to be in your calculation/estimation, you might choose either the equations or increment borer.   

Please see the link and the attachment.

1.      Allometric equations for urban ash trees (Fraxinus spp.) in Oakville, Southern Ontario, Canada By: Claudia Alzate

Urban Forestry & Urban Greening

Volume 13, Issue 1, 2014, Pages 175-183

https://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/peper/psw_2014_peper001.pdf

2.      Growth Dimensions for Maple Trees in the Town of Oakville by: Suzanne Spyron

See attached

Thanks,

Jalil

Jalil Hashemi,RPF
Manager - Forestry Services
Parks & Open Space
Town of Oakville | 905-845-6601, ext.3848 |f: 905-338-4227 |www.oakville.ca

Vision: To be the most livable town in Canada
Please consider the environment before printing this email.
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From: CANUFNET <canufnet-bounces at list.web.net>On Behalf Of Mark Carroll via CANUFNET
Sent: March 17, 2021 10:35 PM
To: Canadian Urban Forest Network <canufnet at list.web.net>
Cc: Mark Carroll <environment1st at rogers.com>
Subject: [CANUFNET] Appraisal of trees and estimating the age of trees

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To all 

I am looking for some help. Does anyone know of a way to positively estimate the age of a tree? I have some old Acer saccharum I would estimate at 130 years of age. Is there a registry of size, area and specie of tree that can identify the age of trees? I have 2 that I am dealing with, one is 90cm DBH (130 years old) and the other is 54cm DBH (80 years old ).

Thanks for any help....

Mark Carroll
ISA Certified Arborist, Qualified Arborist Tech

TRAQ Certified
Taking our environment first
Thanks for connecting...

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