Brandywine Creek State Park's Tulip Poplars

[George Fieo]

George,

You are a one man measuring machine. You do us proud. You also have filled in a large gap in our tree numbers for that region. I'll add the new numbers to the article several of us are writing on the tuliptree for the Bulletin. Your data is highly significant, and likely shows that the Delaware area was once a highly tree-fertile region.

Bob

Thanks Bob, I've got a sevre case of the measuring bug and have been told there is no known cure. I guess I'll have to learn to live with it.

Not only was southeast Pa. and northern Del. highly fertile but also has a lot of old money. The rich had no need to harvest their woodlots and where likely considered as a luxury. Most of these woodlots are still in private ownership. I'm currently working on gaining access to such a site. Trees are said to be over 200 years old with girths between 10-12'.

George

[George Fieo]

Good grief! That's a lot of really huge poplars! I'd love to visit that place.

James,

US Route 202 and Interstate 95 are only minutes from the park.

[George Fieo]

Wow. I think that's more big populars than Steve & I have measured in the entire state of Ohio.

You guys must be exhausted, Ohio is a large state.

[George Fieo]

Is this site in PA? Holy crap those are some magnificent trees. Exceptional girth and height for such high latitude. Make sure these are included in Neil's Liriodendron study. Great work!

The site is in northern Delaware about 1 mile south of the Pennsylvania border.

[George Fieo]

Wow! There just aren't many places with so much quantity and quality. I'm astounded that such a fine collection exists just outside of Delaware's capital. Are all of the tuliptrees in the tuliptree preserve or do they spill over into other areas of the park?

Brian,

The park was formerly owned by the Du Pont family and they have many estates throught SE Pa. and Delaware. Some may have stands similar to Brandywine Creek State Park or second growth at least.

The majority of large/tall tulips are on the east side of the Brandywine Creek. I would say that Tulip Tree Woods contains about 12% of the parks 12' x 100' tulips.

George

[bbeduhn]

The DuPonts had a vast holding of land. In western North Carolina, there is a DuPont State Forest. It has nothing to speak of as far as large trees but does have some fine waterfalls. It was almost became a high dollar development. Roads were already in place when the state stepped in.

So it appears that the tulips are virtually everywhere in Brandywine. That is a truly impressive stand, which covers many acres. It's a rarity to see such quality and quantity. I certainly hope more DuPont land becomes public in the future.

[mdavie]

Very interesting site. I was forwarded this link by the Brandywine Creek Park Naturalist. I am a biologist with Delaware State Parks and we have been doing invasive species control in Tulip Tree Woods in Brandywine Creek State Park for around 10 years. I have some data about this forest (and the park overall), but nothing about the height of the trees...and nothing about how they compare outside of Delaware. We are manageing the site for it's return to old growth forest. We have mapped all of our state parks for older forests. Interested in doing some more investigating? Just let me know. Rob - Env. Stewardship Prog.

C'mon, someone's got to take him up on this...

[George Fieo]

Very interesting site. I was forwarded this link by the Brandywine Creek Park Naturalist. I am a biologist with Delaware State Parks and we have been doing invasive species control in Tulip Tree Woods in Brandywine Creek State Park for around 10 years. I have some data about this forest (and the park overall), but nothing about the height of the trees...and nothing about how they compare outside of Delaware. We are manageing the site for it's return to old growth forest. We have mapped all of our state parks for older forests. Interested in doing some more investigating? Just let me know. Rob - Env. Stewardship Prog.

Rob,

I would like to hear some of the park's history, particularly when it was last harvested and what type of logging took place. I've read that some tulips are between 190-220 years old. Do you know how the park system came up with this number?

Brandywine Creek State Park has a Rucker Index of 140.62'. Here's a few numbers for a quick comparison.

Site RI State Region
Great Smoky Mountains NS 163.6' NC-Tenn Southeast
Ridley Creek SP 139.35' PA Northeast
Holly River SP 134.7' WV Central Atlantic

I'm also very interested in exploring some more of Delaware's fine sites. I'll email you later and give you what coordinates I have for the trees.

George

[greenent22]

Absolutely astounding. I wonder if this is the place I was at when I was a little kid. I just recall my parents taking me some park way down in the southeastern PA/DE area, not even sure what the reason was to hit the park that day, and just being left with the impression of a creek and absolutely humungous tulip trees and a sense of magic. I've been meaning to find out/figure out what the place was and to get a look again.

[Bart Bouricius]

Very impressive George, must have been fun measuring those monsters. There is hope for more big ones in New Jersey New York and Connecticut if you can get numbers like that.