It now appears that the largest diameter Douglas-fir in the city of Portland resides on Powell Butte Nature Park! On “Earth Day” Tuesday, April 22, 2014 I met up with fellow big tree enthusiast, photographer, and outdoors-man Darvel Lloyd and we visited Powell Butte to measure the largest Douglas-fir trees in the park, the “Heritage tree” and “tree of merit” listed in the city of Portland’s tree registry: http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=102686 and http://www.portlandoregon.gov/parks/article/461223.
Heritage Douglas-fir Tree, Powell Butte Nature Park, 4-22-2014, low-res. Photographed by Darvel Lloyd.
Wading through the four foot high stinging nettles, I brought my elastic tape line and we both measured the circumference of several huge trees which ranged in size from about 18 to 20 feet in circumference! The heritage tree is the largest diameter Douglas-fir in the park, and measured about 20 feet 8 inches in circumference at chest height, or 6 feet 7 inches in diameter! The tree was on a bit of an incline, so the measure could be off by a few inches, but for all practical purposes it is a 6 -1/2 foot diameter tree! Both the heritage tree and tree of merit are 160 to 165 feet high to a broken top — suggesting they both may have been 200 feet tall originally before losing their tops! Not far from this little grove of monoliths, and towards the north side of the park there are numerous healthy 150 to 200 foot tall trees.