Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008
Residents of Washington Grove say they always knew that their community’s canopy of trees was special, but now it’s official.
Two of the town’s trees, a shortleaf pine and a pitch pine, were recently named Maryland State Champion trees by the Maryland Big Tree Program, recognizing them as the biggest trees of their species in the state, according to John Bennett, the program’s volunteer coordinator.
Though the pines are giants among their kind, they look modest surrounded by the Grove’s massive oaks, according to sixth-generation resident Joli McCathran, chairwoman of the town’s Tree Advisory Committee who also helps out with the Big Tree Program, which measures and catalogs large trees.
‘‘They kind of blend in because we are a town in the middle of a forest,” she said. ‘‘The trees are very important to us.”
A standard formula that factors in height, trunk circumference and average crown spread developed by American Forests, a national nonprofit, is used to determine a point value for each tree. The state’s 24 county forest boards maintain registers of their champion trees and compare their spectacular specimens against state and national champs.
One of the 18 trees nominated this year by the Maryland Big Tree Program is a potential national champ, a 21-foot blackhaw viburnum in Silver Spring, Bennett said.
However, the upcounty may soon be home to Maryland’s official state tree — Flora’s Oak, a 109-foot-tall white oak that sits on the Barnesville property of Victor and Linda Pepe. Flora’s Oak is already the biggest white oak in the state, but Big Tree Program staff are still waiting to hear if the governor will designate it as the state’s official tree, Bennett said.
Maryland’s former state tree, Talbot County’s nearly 500-year-old Wye Oak, was the largest white oak on record in the United States until it was felled during a 2002 thunderstorm, according to the Maryland State Archives Web site. The white oak is Maryland’s state tree.
Washington Grove’s 87-foot shortleaf pine, a species rarely seen in Maryland, sits at the corner of Chestnut and Center streets, according to Bennett and McCathran, and has a circumference of 6 feet 6 inches and an average crown spread of 44 feet. The more common 77-foot pitch pine can be found on Grove Road near the town’s ballfield and has an 8-foot circumference and an average crown spread.
‘‘The nice thing about these two trees for real enthusiasts is that they’re on public land,” McCathran said.
Representatives of the Big Tree Program, which is managed by the Maryland Association of Forest Conservancy District Boards, measured nominees in late January, including the Grove’s two trees, Bennett said. The person who took the measurements of the last state shortleaf champ, a 105-footer in Annapolis, has passed away since it was last measured in 2000, Bennett said. The address was listed incorrectly and the tree could not be found. The former pitch pine champion, in Laurel’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, recently died.
The Washington Grove pitch pine was listed as the biggest in the county, but the town’s shortleaf has the honor of replacing the current county champ, a 96-footer in Potomac two points short of the new victor’s score. The Potomac tree can no longer be found, and the Grove’s representative was next in line, according to Joe Howard, a member of the county’s Forestry Board. Big Tree staff tries to follow the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ policy of measuring the trees every five to 10 years, though the program’s limited resources makes maintaining that schedule difficult, Bennett said.
The two Washington Grove trees were nominated about seven years ago by John Bradfield. Bradfield’s Gaithersburg home backs up to the Grove, and the former forestry school student often goes for walks in the community’s woods.
‘‘It’s an advocation more than a hobby. You kind of have an eye for it,” said Bradfield, director of environmental affairs for the Composite Panel Association, a wood industry trade group. ‘‘...At heart, I’m a forester.”
Check it out
To learn more about champion trees in Montgomery County, visit www.mcmdforestryboard.org. To learn more about the Maryland Big Tree Program, visit www.cecilfb.sailorsite.net⁄MD_Big_Tree.htm.
