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http://www.omniture.com --> Sections Home Page Local News AP News Blogs Archives Business Classifieds Event Calendar Forums Life Opinion Obituaries Photo Gallery Readers Photo Gallery Sports Tempo Weather Road Cams Special Coverage 2006 Britt Festivals --> Shop Our Valley AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Search Our Valley Special Sections Distinctly Northwest Readers' Choice Homelife Magazine Joy Magazine Oregon Golf Info Oregon Wine Info Other Publications Local Links Ashland News eSouthernOregon Newspapers In Education Personals Moving Here Movie Listings TV Listings Volunteer Customer Service Advertise With Us Media Kit Place Classified Ad Contact Us FAQ's Home Delivery Site Map --> Email Story to a Friend February 5, 2007 Click image for larger view Cindy Deacon Williams is the newly appointed keeper of the records for the state�s largest trees. She�s standing next to Oregon�s largest western white pine, growing near Willow Lake. (Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli) Big trees Why the search for them is a good thing Registry of giants spotlights trees' vital forest role, experts say By paul fattig Mail Tribune BUTTE FALLS — Standing under the state record western white pine, Cindy Deacon Williams cranes her neck to look up at the huge trunk soaring into the forest canopy. "Think of all the baby birds this tree has sheltered, all the fawns that have wobbled past on young legs, all the cougars and the black bears that have gone by it," she observes of the tree towering 242 feet above the ground. "Think of the procession of life that has walked past this tree." "Think of the winds it has withstood, the stand replacement fires it has been through," adds Brian Ballou. Williams is the big tree coordinator for the National Center for Conservation Science & Policy in Ashland. Ballou is an Oregon Department of Forestry employee who once coordinated the big tree program for the state. Advertisement For more than half a century, the ODF had been the keeper of Oregon's big trees, maintaining records and checking out nominations statewide. But budget constraints caused the agency to look for someone else to head the program, which includes 35 national champions. The Ashland center took custody of the records just before the holidays. It plans to promote big trees on its Web site, expected to be completed soon, and will include top trees in the state, how to nominate champions and GPS locations for the champs on public land. "We want to recruit big tree volunteers from around the state," says Williams, director of aquatic science and conservation education programs for the center. "They would do things like reconfirming status of existing champions or verifying new nominations." The center also will coordinate with the ODF to organize a training program to enable people to learn how to measure potential champions. A champ is determined by total points based on its trunk circumference, height and average crown spread. American Forests, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization, maintains a National Register of Big Trees. It has been documenting the largest known specimens of every native and naturalized tree in the nation since 1940. The western white pine Williams and Ballou visited late last week in the High Cascades Ranger District of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest was once a national champion, according to a sign posted near the tree. "Already a large mature tree when the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, the Butte Falls Western White Pine is probably at least 400 years old," it reads. "It now contains an estimated 25,000 board feet of timber." Discovered and measured in 1972 by U.S. Forest Service timber cruisers Joe Delsman and Ed Zboralski, it was nominated by forest archaeologist/historian Jeff LaLande in 1994. But it lost its national crown when a larger western white pine was later found in California's El Dorado National Forest. The new champ is shorter at 151 feet but has a trunk that is about 33 feet in circumference at chest height with an average crown spread of 52 feet. Albeit taller by more than 90 feet, the Butte Falls tree has a smaller trunk at 20.9 feet in circumference with a 34.5-foot average crown spread. Ballou, who visited the Butte Falls tree about a decade ago, maintained the big tree records in the ODF's state headquarters in Salem for more than half a dozen years until 1997. He now works out of the ODF's Central Point office. "I didn't ask for it — it kind of got handed to me," he says of the program. "The big tree program was always something extra for someone to do. As the world turned, there was always less and less time to devote to the program. I spent a fair amount of evenings and weekends working on it. "But I really took a shine to it," he adds. "I felt an obligation to respond to nominations as soon as I could." He used a compass and maps and became very good at identifying most trees. When he wasn't sure of some species, such as a subspecies of willow, he called in an expert. "Conifers are the big game," he says. "When you see the big coastal Sitka spruce (206 feet tall in Clatsop County) it jumps out at you. It's two or three times bigger than anything else around it." Big trees also mean bragging rights, he says, noting Oregon's and Washington's governors once got in a friendly rivalry over which state had the national coastal Douglas fir. "It was kind of like they were betting on a bowl game or something," he says, adding the issue was settled when the Oregon's competitor was blown down during a windstorm. The nation's largest known coastal Douglas fir is in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park just north of Crescent City, Calif., followed by one in Olympic National Park in Washington. The Oregon state champion in Coos Bay is in third place, according to the record book. "There are a relative handful of guys out there who have found and nominated most of the champion trees we have," Ballou says, noting the hunters have a healthy rivalry. Oregon's big tree hunters are led by Salem's Maynard Drawson, 81, a retired barber. "Those big trees are something Oregonians have so much to be proud of, yet know so little about," says Drawson, who has found eight of the Oregon champion trees as well as several national champions. That includes America's largest bigleaf maple, whose trunk is more than 32 feet in circumference and stands 100 feet tall in Clatsop County. Central Point's Frank Callahan has at least 18 champion trees to his credit in Oregon as well as numerous crowns in other states. Mark Corbet, a smokejumper from Redmond, has found more than 10 champions. But the wooden kings don't wear their crowns forever. They can be toppled by storms, wildfires, disease, old age or outpaced by other big trees. Williams hopes the friendly competition among big-tree hunters and others will spur interest among Oregonians to keep an eye out for champion trees. "Big trees are symbols that attract public attention and serve as an avenue to understanding what trees do for a forest," she says. "They do everything from providing high quality habitat for wildlife to helping the whole watershed function so that when the rain comes down it gets absorbed instead of flooding us out. They help build soils when they lose their leaves or needles. "But even when the tree dies and falls down it helps retain and build soils," she adds. "Trees are incredibly important to the land around us and big trees are the ones that catch our eye." Williams takes a moment to measure the tree trunk's circumference, using her outstretched arms as measuring sticks. It takes four of her armspans to circle the tree. "It seems like in modern life, as we get into Blackberries, cell phones, Ipods and the Internet, that our frame of reference for time is contracting dramatically," she says. "But you get out here with a big tree like this that is about 400 years old and it opens your mind to the march of time." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] . Would you like to respond to this story? If so Click Here to visit our forums. Advertisement Copyright © 1997-2007 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback online casinos news Home Security Systems Online Casino Reviews Online poker at AbsolutePoker.com Fundraisers UK Homeowner Loans Casinos Canada Cord Blood Banking Entertainment Guide Texas Electric Choice Compare Electric rates in Texas Windermere Van Vleet Trunks, Footlocker Men's Clothing Debt Help