| Big Tree Hunting |
 The fall and early winter period has been quite a busy one for the Champion Tree Program. A surge of recent tree nominations meant we needed to ramp up our inspection schedule. Our goal was to complete all the necessary field inspections of each and every nominated tree before the arrival of bad weather. There were 53 trees to examine and not a moment to waste. So we assembled our band of erstwhile tree hunters and got moving. I am pleased to report that as of this writing all but 5 of the tree inspections have been done. We hope to get to them soon as long as the good weather stays with us!
The truly great news is that after tallying their total point score, 35 out of the 48 specimens were added to RITree's Big Tree Registry (i.e. the latter is an exclusive database of the top 5 trees of their species based on score). That's like a baseball player batting .750! And, by the way, some of the discoveries we made were just fantastic. Here is a brief description of several of the most exciting of these, drum-roll please….
This majestic American elm is located on the Makepeace property on West Main Road in Little Compton, RI. Its trunk diameter measures 17'1" (205 inches). The tree is 84 feet in height with an average crown spread of 96.5 feet. These generous proportions produce a total point score of 310.5. This total is good enough to dethrone the former champion elm located in Providence's West End Mansion Park (299 points). I was told by the Makeapeaces that I could see the top of their Champion Elm from the Dunkin Donuts shop on East Main Road in Portsmouth. I should have believed them! It took me 45 minutes to drive up Rte 77 N through Tiverton and, then, turn down Rte 114 S until I arrived at my destination. I didn't even need my binoculars. The elm's dark green canopy stood out against the bluer than blue sky above Little Compton like a family portrait hung on an entrance way wall.
A very common inhabitant of the southern Appalachians, we found this Yellow buckeye behind the Rockwell House Bed and Breakfast, 610 Hope Street, Bristol, RI. This native tree is considered by many authorities as the most beautiful of the large growing North American Aesculus. Bristol's Yellow buckeye is a very handsome example of the species. The tree is 78 feet tall with an average crown spread of 69 feet. Standing in front of the buckeye's trunk (120 diameter inches) is Debra Krohn, the charming proprietor of the Rockwell House and the tree's owner.
The Pin oak was found by Jan Schmidt, a tree steward. She asked me if I could drop by to help her come up with a plan to protect it. The tree is located in the southeast corner of an asphalt parking lot on Fairoaks Avenue in Providence, RI. The parking lot is owned by Saint Pius Church. The Pin oak stands 90 feet in height. The trunk circumference is 178 diameter inches (14'10") and the average crown spread is 87.5 feet. The Pin oaks total point score is 290 points. This total is 3.5 points more than the current champion (286.5 points) found in Westerly's Wilcox Park. Pass the crown, please. Funny thing, I live 5 minutes from this big oak, circled it hundreds of times, but never once stopped to take a closer look! I thank Jan for finally getting me to drop in on it. By the way, Jan has spoken to church leaders and they are very anxious to care for and protect their champion oak.
The Camperdownii elm is a very unusual plant and one that is rarely found in the United States outside of major parks, arboreta, or botanical gardens. The one pictured is located in the heart of Middletown at the corner of Ellery Avenue and Renfrew Park Road. It's measurements are as follows: trunk circumference 127 diameter inches, height 23 feet and average crown spread 45 feet. The total point score is 161.25. The Camperdownii elm is a cultivated variety of the Scots elm. In Europe, the plant is grafted to the stem of the Smoothleaf elm (U. carpinifolia) while the American elm (U. americana) is used as the stem in the United States. This slow-‐growing tree is known for its gnarly, contorted, pendulous branching. I have only seen one of these trees in my lifetime that was as large and picturesque as the Middletown specimen. The tree was located in Brooklyn, New York's famous Prospect Park. It was planted in 1872 and is still thriving in the 21st century. A framed poster of a copy of a hand drawing of this iconic tree by the famous sculptorJacques Hnizdovsky hangs in the RITree office in Johnston, RI.
If you would like to help us to find these big, venerable trees. Just fill out a tree nomination form or, better yet, give us a call at the office, if you think you may have found a worthy tree. The nomination form can be downloaded from the RITree website www.RITree.org. For a minimum donation of $15.00 you can obtain your own copy of the Rhode Island Champion Trees 2011 book. This 46 page booklet is comprised of beautiful photographs, interesting details on the sylvan giants found in Rhode Island and the complete list of the 2011 Champion Trees. Please contact RITree either by phone 401-‐764-‐5885 or by email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to order yours today! Why not buy one, or two for Christmas. All proceeds go to protecting these great RI giants. |
Yellow buckeye, Aesculus octandra
With a total point score of 216 points, this Yellow buckeye is the bona fide species champion. We also discovered at this site a very large Tuliptree. Tree hunter Douglas Dalton is shown measuring the tree's massive trunk (17 diameter feet) in the picture below. The Tuliptree's total point score was 317 points, making it the 4th biggest of its kind in Rhode Island.
Pin oak, Quercus palustris 
Camperdownii elm, Ulmus glabra x U. carpinofolia 
As you can see, we are slowly but surely building a grand database of Rhode Island's big trees. There are currently 466 trees in the database. Of that total, 129 are species champions.