Age and Information about Oaks at Edgewood College

Background and Purpose
One thing known about the oaks at Edgewood College is that there are a lot of trees on campus and a big variety of oaks. This is an important subject because some people need to know about the history of the campus. Also it could help future research by having a historical record and telephone companies could figure out where to put the telephone poles. This issue is relevant to watershed health because trees give us oxygen, shade, wood products, wildlife habitat, and the leaves can get carried into the water. In this study we addressed several questions, which are: What are the different types of oak on campus? Which trees were here before the European settlers? Are the old trees spread apart or clustered in one area? What are the circumference and age of the trees? Where is the biggest oak on campus? We hypothesized that all the old oaks are spread apart.

Methods
We tried to answer our questions by identifying the oaks on campus; once we found them we measured the circumference of the tree with a tape measure at four feet from the ground and recording it in a table. We also found a way to estimate age from our teacher by finding out the diameter of the tree at four feet and multiplying by five. We measured height for one of the trees by finding a method online. The method was touching our hands to our ankles and looking through our legs until we could see the top of tree. Then we measured from where we were standing to the tree to get the height of the tree. Another method we used to measure the height of the tree was standing a measured distance from the base of the tree and measuring the angle "A" between the base of the tree and the top of tree. By knowing the angle "A" and the distance "Y" from the tree, we could use the equation tangent A=y/x. We solved for x , with x being the height of the tree. We also made a map of our trees by finding the trees and plotting them on a map of the campus.

 

Measuring Circumference of tree

Results
We ended up measuring 11 different trees (see map below) and the results are on the table below. We found out that the biggest trees were oaks 1 and 2. The trees that were probably here before European settlement were oaks 1, 2, 3, and 8. We found that the old trees for the most part were spread around the campus. The circumference and age of the trees are on the table. The biggest oaks on campus are a Bur Oak and a White Oak that are by Regina Hall and by the Basketball court.

Map of the Oaks on Edgewood College

Discussion and Conclusions
One limitation to our study was that we didn't get many height measurements and we didn't always measure circumference four feet up on the tree. We are more confident in our results in some places than others. We didn't have the right measuring techniques for height, we should have used a clinometer. We don't think there are many old trees left because they all died or got cut down. As the results of our study we have developed some new questions, which are: How many different oaks are there? How many trees were cut down in the past 5 years that were here before European settlement? Where is the smallest oak on campus? For future research it would be beneficial to have proper measuring techniques. Also you should spend more time on it than a week. It can help because people in the future will be able to look at the map and chart we made and be able to establish facts and make new maps.

Left: Bur Oak Leaf	Right: White Oak Leaf

References
Tim Andrews, personal conversation
Jim Lorman, personal conversation
Kari Fenske, personal conversation
"How to Estimate Tree Age"
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/3550/tree.htm

By Ruffin White and Eric Krause