Champion Trees

What are they and how do you measure them

Nancy L. Weiss

Champion - definitions

• One who excels more than anyone or anything else.• One who shows marked

superiority.• A winner of first place in a

competition.

Tree - definitions• A woody perennial plant having a

single usually elongate main stem generally with few or no branches on its lower part. (Webster’s 10th ed.)

American Forests tree definition

• None! Says its list is based on the USDA Plant Database and the Integrated Taxonomic Information System. I searched both and could never find a definition of a tree. It includes what most of us would call big shrubs e.g. the only national champion in our county.

• AF maintains the National Registry of Big Trees• VT maintains our state registry. Jeff Kirwan

Why look for Big Trees?• Just because they are there and its fun• Link to the past• To better understand a species• Landscape design planning• Better understand local growing conditions

Big (Champion)Trees

• By Age: Bristlecone Pine• By Height: Coastal Redwood• By Volume above ground: Giant Sequoia• By Volume below ground: Quaking Aspen

Bristlecone Pine

• Pinus longaeva

Giant Sequoia

• Sequoiadendron– giganteum

• Circumference 1020• Height 274• crown spread 107• total points 1321

Coastal Redwood – the tallest

• Sequoia sempervirens

Quaking Aspen

• Populus tremuloides• Most widely distributed

tree species in NA• Root sprouts so up to

100 acres of trees are genetically the same

Big Tree Registry History• The call to search for America’s biggest trees first came in

the September 1940 issue of American Forests magazine, where concerned forester Joseph Sterns published his article “Let’s Find and Save the Biggest Trees.” Sterns wasn’t referring to the famous and historic trees that were already protected, but the giants left standing in virgin forests.

• Since that call to locate and measure the largest trees of each species, American Forests has maintained the National Register of Big Trees, a list of the biggest trees in America. Regardless of size, all trees are champions of the environ

Champion formula• Done by an arbitrary point system• Trunk circumference in inches +• Height in feet +• ¼ Average crown spread in feet = total points• A tree must be re-measured at least every 10 years

to maintain its champion status.

• National Register has 780 champs & is looking for champs in 200 more species

Big Trees in Virginia

• Record keeping started in 1970 as a 4-H project.

• 72 National Champions are in Va (4th in US)• The only national champ in our county is a

Shrub! A Blackhaw• Our oldest, biggest and tallest have all died in

the last 5 years. Now tallest is in the Montpelier landmark forest. Tulip tree 168.7’

Highest point count in VA• Water Tupelo (Nyssa

aquatica) in Chesapeake

• Circ 474• Height 102• Spread 54• Total 590!

A Champion in Virginia• Fraser fir (Abies fraseri)

in HarrisonburgCirc 116Height 96Spread 45

• Total 223

Viburnum prunifolium (Blackhaw)

• Circ76 (in)

• Height33 (ft)

• ¼ av crown spread40 (ft)

• Total points119

Tree measuring Tools• Stick• 100’ measuring tape• Pencil and Pad Clinometer Laser Calculator

or• Smart phone app Smart Measure

1 Trunk measuring

• The easy case we rarely see.

Liriodendron tulipifera

• Yellow-popular• Tulip popular• Tulip tree• Whitewood• Circ 359• Ht 115• Spread 83• Total 495

But there are 4 hard cases

Trunk measuring problem

2 Height measuring

• Its all about right triangle• and ratios

Height measuring• Easy case often a conifer

The highest point of the tree is directly over the base of the tree

The highest point of the tree is clearly visible

The tree is growing on level ground

The tree does not lean

Can use stick method ( or shadow) or 45 degree angle method or per cent method

Stick method

• 1. Find a straight stick or ruler.• 2. Hold the stick vertically at arm’s length, making sure

that the length of the stick above your hand equals the distance from your hand to your eye.• 3. Walk backward away from the tree. Stop when the

stick above your hand is the same length as the tree.• 4. Measure the distance from the tree to where you are

standing. Record that measurement to the closest foot.

Stick method approximation

45 degree angle method

• Don’t forget to add in your height

Shadow method

• Only works on a sunny day

Your shadow/height :: tree shadow/ tree height 8/5 =40/25

2 Height measuring

• Its all about right triangle• and ratios

Next tool - Clinometer

• All other methods require this.• Any one instrument has 2 of 5 possible scales• Scales:– Percent (rise/run)– Degrees (from horizontal)– Topographic (1 chain = 66’)– Metric (15/20 meters)– Secant (aids if on a slope)

Clinometer• How to use a clinometer:• Hold the clinometer to your eye

and with both eyes open, look simultaneously through the lens and alongside the housing. A horizontal sighting line will appear. Raise or lower the clinometer (by tilting your head) to place the sighting line on your target. Read the number closest to the sighting line.

Per Cent Method30% - (-8%) = 38% → 38% x 70' = 26.6' tree height

Tangent method

A tan x D = Height

Sources of error in height measuring

• Can’t see real top• Top of tree not over base (leans)• Slope of land• Can’t see bottom of tree• Don’t use instruments correctly• Instruments not calibrated

Tree lean

Height Measuring Trigonometry

3 Crown spread • 1. Measure the widest crown spread, which is the greatest

distance between any two points along the tree’s drip line. The drip line is the area defined by the outermost circumference of the tree’s canopy where water drips to the ground.

• 2. Turn the axis of measurement 90 degrees and find the narrow crown spread.

• 3. Calculate the average of the two crown spread measurements using this formula: (wide spread + narrow spread)/2 = average crown spread

Hard crown spread to measure

• Situations where you can’t get to the tree Across a barrier like a river

Steep slope Thick forest

Need to use laser for these.

Useful web sites• Champion tree and tree measuring web sites• http://www.americanforests.org/bigtrees/bigtrees-search/ • If you go to advanced search you can get all of the big trees by state or species• • http://ascendingthegiants.com/• group that climbs tallest trees to learn about them and measure very accurately• • http://www.ancienttreearchive.org/• Collect, propagate and archive the genetics of ancient champion trees from around the

globe. • • http://www.americanforests.org/magazine/article/journey-through-champion-trees/• Lovely stories of champion trees and photographs of them• • http://www.discoversouthcarolina.com/Insider/Outdoor/Stories/7954• 25 national champion trees in SC at Congaree national park

Quote from Eric Wiseman

• “I willingly confess to so great a partiality for

trees as tempts me to respect a man in exact proportion to

his respect for them.”

• ~ James Russell Lowell