# Help locate Michigan's biggest trees



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Help locate Michigan's biggest trees

Know of a really big tree? Aug. 1 is the deadline to nominate it for the state and national champion tree competitions.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070720/FEATURES04/707200358/1025/FEATURES


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## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

I did a story for Michigan Out of Doors magazine that I later also published in 4-5 other statewide publications, and one national publication on the big tree list. Can't remember when it was, but it was the year before Dr. Thompson died, as I was able to interview him. Dr. Ehrle was just taking over for him at the time. Probably 96 or so. 

Anyway, over the course of a summer I visited a number of the state and national champion trees in Michigan. It is fascinating to find one of these giants. 

I would be very interested in knowing how many of them are still standing. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Dr. Ehrle has been able to keep the list at all current, the latest any of those trees were measured is 2002...

I've always wondered if two of them, both national champions, the birch in Sleeping Bear, and the poplar in Porcupines Mt. State Park, both soft pulp trees which rarely live more than 30-50 years, (and these were both estimated as 10 times older than that) are still standing. I saw both, and they were absolutely magnificent. 

As was the big American chestnut in GT County on the Old Mission Peninsula, also a national champion...it's since been displaced by a tree in Oregon. 

Dr. John Spencer was very helpful to me in locating a number of these trees, as well as a HUGE grove of old-growth balsam firs in Sleeping Bear. I'm not sure if he's still alive or not, I don't think so. He was quite a conservationis


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## booker81 (Dec 4, 2005)

I've never put thought into the big tree contests before, but I was wondering if I should put in one of our trees (or more).

We have a stand of old beech trees on our property, about 30 or so of them, with a couple that are pretty big. I'm not sure how big beech trees get, but a quick google makes me think some of ours are a lot bigger than some of the "biggest" in other areas.

Should I bother "entering"??

Here is one beech tree (and my mom isn't a small person):










That particular tree may be the biggest one there, but the others aren't too small - most can't be spanned by two people trying to put their arms around them.

Should I bother entering?


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## doublell (Feb 8, 2007)

a man named david milarch and his son jared started the Champion Tree Project probably 10 years ago. they are from I belive Mesick. This is a pretty large organization and I am surprised they are not mentioned in the free press article. their website is championtreeproject.org check it out if you are interested in this subject.


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## multibeard (Mar 3, 2002)

I was hunting geese on a friends farm a few years back. when it started to rain pretty hard my hunting partner and I went and stood under a huge white ash on the fence line for shelter. 

I realized that my hunting partner were standing on one side of the tree. All I had was an 8 foot tape measure so it was impossible to get a real accurate measurement. As close as I could come was 21 feet as chest hight.

The farmer and I were talking about the tree a while back. He said that his ashes are to be spread under the tree when he dies. I just hope that the tree survives the emerald ash bore.


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## FIJI (May 15, 2003)

http://www.semcog.org/Products/pdfs/LandUseToolAndTechniques.pdf

pg 133 Bebb Oak

(This was the only pic I could find - will take an updated one)


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## swampbuck (Dec 23, 2004)

doublell said:


> a man named david milarch and his son jared started the Champion Tree Project probably 10 years ago. they are from I belive Mesick. This is a pretty large organization and I am surprised they are not mentioned in the free press article. their website is championtreeproject.org check it out if you are interested in this subject.


they are from copemish. they have done some very cool things other than that, such as cloning historical trees and working with disease resistant elms, developing new fertalizers etc.. they also wholesale some of the best shade trees I have seen. thats where we get ours.

but most importantly they are some of the nicest most honest and helpful people you could ever meet.


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## Banditto (Jun 9, 2000)

There is an oak on one of the properties I hunt that is honest to god 3-4 times larger than the tree in the picture above. When I hunt there next I will try to snap a picture if I think about it.

Looking at that picture of the bebb oak, the tree I am talking about has to be a bebb oak. Possibly larger than that one--hard to get an idea of that scale.


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