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Cover Story
Interested in 85 Years of U.S. Big Tree History?
National Champion Tree Program makes available an archive of historical registers and documents
By Jaq Payne, NCTP Director and Dr. Sharon Jean-Philippe, Professor in the UT School of Natural Resources
One of the most tragic stories in the history of American forests is now in the making. It hasn’t been written in its final form, but our children will live to see that day unless something is done. I refer to the gradual disappearance of our most magnificent remaining tree specimens.
– Joseph Stearns (1940)
When Mr. Stearns shared these concerns in American Forests Magazine, he wasn’t writing about the beloved, famous, protected redwoods on the West Coast. The “most magnificent remaining trees” that he called attention to were the oaks, sweetgums, sycamores, and pines distributed throughout America’s few remaining old-growth forest stands (Figure 1).
These oft-unsung heroes of our environment are remarkable not only for their beauty, for the shade that they cast, and for the stormwater they filter – these trees are a living connection between our past and the future. The National Champion Rocky Mountain Juniper, the “Jardine Juniper”, has been documented at over 1,500 years old (Figure 2). If adequately protected, this well-protected specimen will likely join the eldest of its brethren by hanging around for another 1,500 years. We stand today in the present, remembering the seedling that became this monarch and that will (hopefully) grow past us into distant future.
Stearns’ call for recognizing and protecting the largest specimen of each tree species in the United States became the “American Forestry Association’s 1941 Report on American Big Trees”, a list of 76 trees documented as the largest of their species. As of 2023, the National Champion Tree program has found a new home at the University of Tennessee.
Today’s reports occur biannually with the officially title as the “National Register of Champion Trees”. The 2024 Register features 547 big trees located across the United States (Figure 3). Although this relatively brief history pales in comparison to that of the Jardine Juniper, 85 years of history is nothing to sneeze at. The records that are now publicly and readily available span time of administrations of fifteen different presidents, nineteen Summer Olympic games, and a dizzying array of technological advancements, including the first human breaking the sound barrier, the development of Velcro, the microwave oven, and the Slinky.
For the first time since the program’s inception, all past Registers of Champion Trees are now available for public viewing. These records are the vibrant history of our relationship with our arboreal giants and, more broadly, the history of Americans and our remarkable trees (Figure 4).
At the beginning of the archive, a major concern of 1940s conservationists was widespread deforestation that occurred with World War II. As the few remaining unlogged American forests were becoming assets used to meet the raw material demands of war, foresters were becoming concerned; if the largest, strongest, healthiest specimens in the forest were repeatedly sought for cutting, then the nation would lose the genetic stock resources that would re-grow large, strong, healthy trees for future generations. In the following era of increased globalization, foresters were soon recognizing early signs of invasive pests like Hemlock Wooly Adelgid, which was first recorded in Virginia in the 1950s but present in U.S. western states since the ‘20s. The archive shows that relocated pests and disease species were becoming a larger part of industry conversations.
The decisions we make today will shape the landscape hundreds of years from now. As these foresters of the past looked toward the future, they understood the legacy of their work. As you scan through the online historical archive, you’ll find that registers are listed by year. Some featuring different milestones, such as the 50th anniversary in 1990, and the first online version in 2010 that replaced the print version, marking a transition that was not well received by big tree fans. The records also include notes about changes that occurred in the registers across time, along with messages and letters.
We are the inheritors of their helpful and harmful choices, and we hold a great responsibility to future generations to do everything within our power to ensure that our children receive the same abundance that was handed to us: a country full to the brim of natural wonders, both those stewarded from ages past and those being planted in the soil today and legacy landscapes and urban forests that hold many magnificent specimen trees; and sometimes State and National Champion tree species.
Foresters in the 1940s came together to imagine this possibility: that we could become a society that recognizes the arboreal treasures around us, a culture that celebrates and venerates trees, and a country that advocates for and protects our stalwart giants. We are their torchbearers now.
As Bill Rooney wrote in the 50th anniversary edition of the Register of Champion Trees in 1990, more than three decades ago:
These monuments to natural order serve as measuring sticks for our own survival. As long as we can see such trees linking sky and earth, as long as they provide quiet places for the young to dream and the not-so-young to remember old dreams and build new ones, we humans too will be able both to stay rooted in the earth and to reach for the sky.
