If those trees (atlantic white cedar) can get to 38" in diameter in just 61 years and that is "slow" growth, I wonder what your good professor would consider fast growth? About the only thing we have in the south that grows any where close to that rate is the tulip poplar (also known as yellow poplar, but it is really a magnolia). There is one of those that I transplanted from the wild right next to a utility pole about 12 years ago. At the time it was a twig about 5" tall with 3 leaves. I joked with my neighbor that the tree trunk would eventually mask the utility pole and he said "Not in this lifetime..." The tree is currently taller than the pole and almost as big around. Unfortunately my neighbor did die before the tree got that big.
One of the slowest growing trees I know of in the south is the pond cypress and its' close relative the bald cypress. These are redwood varieties. To give you an example of how slow they grow, there is one that was about 10 ft tall that I photographed when I was a teenager. It is in the "ideal" climate condition for that species. A few years ago I saw it again, and it was about 15- 20 feet tall. That would have been about 30 years time. One of those 38" in diameter about 15 ft from the base would be thousands of years old. It is not a good measure to use the base of the tree because at the bottom the base can spread out to several times the diameter of the trunk a few feet up. The largest one on record is in a swamp about 40 miles from where I grew up and is more than 23 feet in diameter at the base. This is the species that can grow completely surrounded by water and puts up the odd looking "knees" which are "snorkels" for the root system. The wood from these is similar to cedar in that it is very light, almost completely pest resistant and rot resistant. I have seen only a few atlantic white cedars in the south and all of them were still young trees and shrub sized. When immature these look something like eastern red cedar or arbor vitae, which are far more common here. I would not have thought these would get that size in 61 years.
Your professor is probably correct about the impact of new construction. When I was planning my new studio and workshop, which is located between two oaks that both are more than 30" in diameter, I had the option of removing them or building on piers. We put the piers in pretty carefully so that no contiguous area larger that a 1 ft. diameter was excavated, and then only 2 ft. down. There are 13 piers that are punched into the ground that way. The city arborist really liked our strategy and of course I will greatly appreciate the shade from those oaks in the summers. So far it looks like the construction has not affected the trees.
I'm glad you salvaged the logs. That is so many good board feet there. I would definitely be inclined to bring in a portable saw mill and make some boards if I had a tree like that that had to come down.
|