Championship trees
Text and photos by Wayne Johnson
trees
Dr. Robert Ziegel with Zoar Valley Black Locust.
The City of Buffalo proudly displays its oldest arboreal denizen at 400 Franklin Street. Here, out of an impossibly tiny plot of earth, rises an enormous Sycamore tree, estimated by a city forester in 1960 to be 250 years old.

Western New York has produced a lot of champions, perhaps more than its share in some types of sports and genres of art. But does it have a championship tree?

Is there tucked away on a private estate or in a public park, a tree of extraordinary size that would qualify as a state or national or even international competitor?

The Champion Tree Project would like to know. Created to preserve, safeguard, and study magnificent arboreal specimens, this international organization encourages private citizens as well as professional horticulturists and foresters to nominate candidates.

trees
Buffalo’s oldest tree,
a Sycamore on Franklin St.
Anyone who has encountered a giant tree, felt a sense of awe in its size and presence, marveled at the beauty of its branching structure, and wondered at its ability to survive in one place for hundreds of years, comprehends its worth. Add these intangible qualities to the facts of each tree’s ability to consume carbon dioxide, sulfur and nitrogen compounds, all of which are harmful to humans, while exuding volumes of oxygen, and cooling the air in summer, and the result will make any thinking person cringe at the sound of a chainsaw near one of these silent and benevolent overseers.

For those interested in seeking to experience firsthand a massive old tree, to see the majesty of its form, and to feel the difference between embracing a giant tree and a small tree, travel afar is unnecessary.

The City of Buffalo proudly displays its oldest arboreal denizen at 400 Franklin Street. Here, out of an impossibly tiny plot of earth, rises an enormous Sycamore tree, resplendent with white and cinnamon-blotched, lichen-encrusted bark, and estimated by a city forester in 1960 to be 250 years old.

A short trip to the Dr. Victor Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve in Cheektowaga finds a monster yellow birch, 132 inches at its circumference and believed to be the largest in Western New York, and all the more unusual since these trees are not long-lived. The preserve also offers nearly 300 acres of old-growth forest including a collection of black cherry, beech, and oak trees.

Back in South Buffalo, the Seneca Indian Park on Buffum Street contains black walnuts, oaks, and other hardwood species. The same neighborhood also nourishes large tulip poplars as an added bonus.

trees
American Beech in
Reinstein Nature Preserve.
A few miles south in Hamburg is the home of a particularly massive and stately white oak. Readily accessible, this giant stands on the northwest side of Clark Street, near the entrance to the Erie County Fair Grounds. With a trunk girth of 197 inches, a spread of 111 feet, and 74 feet tall, the tree nearly faced reduction to barrel staves when Erie County threatened to widen Clark Street. Concerned neighborhood residents, who were prepared to paste themselves to its trunk with Tanglefoot in order to repel any snarling Husquevarnas or Homelites, succeeded in putting the project on hold.

Several miles to the east, in the Eagle Heights section of Orchard Park, the pubescent flower buds of an ancient cucumber magnolia (Magnolia acuminata) open every June. Its girth is 186 inches; a measurement made all the more unusual since, in the past, these were readily-harvested timber trees and are now quite scarce. Inside this tree is an internal cavern large enough for a small bear to live in comfortably, visible through a twelve inch diameter hole left by a long-since broken limb. A dozen more limbs, broken or pruned off over the past forty years, have healed over perfectly, leaving a bizarre pattern of bumps.

the “big tree” list:

In New York, the statewide “Big Tree List” is managed by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to acknowledge trees of record size and is used, along with the other states’ lists, to compile the U.S. National Register of Big Trees.

The New York State Big Tree Register is available online at www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dlf/privland/urban/bigtree.html and contains the current champion tree of each variety, its exact measurements, total score, county in which its located and its nominator among other information regarding nomination and measurements.

The Champion Tree Project is available online at www.championtrees.org and includes detailed information on measurement, nomination, national champion trees, and the project’s mission to raise awareness for endangered specimen trees

Henry David Thoreau thought nothing of walking eight or ten miles to keep an appointment with such a tree.

While in Orchard Park, be sure also to have a look at the copper beech (Fagus sylvatica purpurea) located near the intersection of Sunset Drive and East Quaker Street. (As a non-native tree it’s disqualified from competition but represents, nonetheless, an elegant maturity.) Years ago, the former resident of this house, a Mrs. Dudley, who herself lived to be well over 100 years old, was fond of telling friends that for years the tree was a disappointment to her parents as it never seemed to get any bigger. Then one day, a visiting horse kicked it, after which it suddenly began to grow, now towering more than 100 feet over the house.

Continuing east, in front of the aptly named “Majestic Oak Bed and Breakfast” on West Main Street in Alden, grows what is believed to be the largest red oak in Western New York. Owner Sarah Tooley says arborists have told her it’s between 350 and 400 years old. Measuring 196 inches around, the tree appears in perfect health. Gas company employees who recently needed to install new lines through the root zone used environmental boring techniques so as not to sever any major roots.

trees
Lichen-crusted Cucumber Magnolia in Orchard Park.
The current state champion American chestnut (Castanea dentata) resides nearby in Chautauqua County while the champion Silver maple (Acer saccharinum) is in Cattaraugus County. Wolcott, New York, located between Syracuse and Rochester, is home of the national champion Black locust (Robinia pseudocacia) tree.

Since the state register depends on champion tree submissions from the public, there’s every chance that an as-yet undiscovered contender could upset these and other reigning titleholders. So, the next time you’re out for a hike, you might want to include a tape measure in your backpack. (A long tape measure.)

The formula used to determine a state champion consists of a total point score that is calculated using the height of the tree in feet, plus its trunk circumference in inches, plus one quarter of the average crown spread in feet. (Instructions for measurement are available from the project.) While measuring your champion candidate with a friend or relative whose job it is to hold the other end of your tape, bear in mind that, before the industrial revolution of the eighteenth century levelled most of our forests, it was not uncommon for a tree to require the arms of six men to encircle it nor was it rare to find trees over 165 feet.

Henry David Thoreau thought nothing of walking eight or ten miles to keep an appointment with such a tree. Today, those trees are all, unnecessarily, gone, never again to inspire a writer or an artist or anyone else, for that matter.

Wayne Johnson is the president of Johnson’s Nursery.


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