It is a rare if quiet thrill to stand beside a really large tree . To look up into the canopy , touch the bark and consider just how long it has been standing in place . What history has it witnessed ? What forces of the elements has it endured ? Montgomery County is blessed with many big trees to contemplate but what makes a champion ?
Measurements are taken of the circumference in inches , the height and spread in feet and a formula used to arrive at a total number of points . Maryland ’ s first forester , Fred Besley devised the measuring system for Maryland
in 1925 that would become standard for the national competition started by the American Forestry Association ( now American Forests ) in 1940 . He provided the first official measurement of the former national champion White Oak known as “ The Wye Oak .” The campaign to find , register and protect specimens of America ’ s largest trees for future generations came from Lillian Cromelin , then associate editor of American Forests Magazine who created it as a Social Registry of Big Tree Champions . After 75 years , the competition is still going , now known as the National Register of Champion Trees . The most recent list from 2019 includes nearly 700 National
Champions . The State of Maryland has 17 National Champions and 5 of them are in Montgomery County . In 1989 the Montgomery County Forestry Board began our own Champion Tree list with 42 Champion species . By 2013 , the Register listed 184 champions . In 2012 we became the home of the largest known tree of any species in Maryland , a magnificent American Sycamore ( Platanus occidentalis ) that stands on the banks of the Potomac River in Dickerson Conservation Park . It succeeded the famous Wye Oak in Talbot County but not directly . Named for where it was located , the Wye Oak is actually a White Oak ( Quercus alba ) and it held more than one
Previous page : Champion Silver Maple with author Ginny Barnes . Above : American Sycamore with Forestry Board member Laura Miller .
28 plenty I autumn harvest 2020