Champion Trees of Cape St Claire

Big trees catch your eye.  Like the dinosaurs, big trees are now some of the largest living things on our planet.   That is also true in the Cape where our yards and streets are populated with a rich landscape of giants.  Once you start paying attention, you just might be in awe.  Big trees also represent history, whether planted by some forward-thinking person, left to grow by the edge of an old corn field or pasture 100+ years ago, or just accidently rooted from a seed dropped by a bird, buried by a squirrel, or carried by a strong wind.  Every big tree tells a story of the past, sometimes forgotten.

Did you know there is an official National “champion tree” registry for the biggest trees of each species? and every State has their own list?  Did you also know that the system for keeping track of the biggest trees in the country was also born right here in Maryland.  It was the idea of Fred Besley, Maryland’s first State Forester in 1925.  Besley devised a point system to compare trees based on circumference, height, and canopy width. 

The most famous champion tree in Maryland was the Wye Oak, national champion white oak (and our official state tree), that was over 400 years old when it fell in a thunderstorm in 2002. The Liberty Tree, a 400-year-old tulip poplar was another that was located on St. John’s College in Annapolis. In colonial times, the Sons of Liberty met under the tree, and the famed Revolutionary War hero Lafayette gave a speech under it in 1824. The state champion “Burnside” Sycamore, or Witness Tree, was growing on the shores of Antietam Creek at the time of the Civil War battle that claimed 22,000 lives in 1862 and measures 26 feet around.

Today, Maryland is home to 12 National Champion trees with two (a Chestnut Oak and Shagbark Hickory) still living only a few miles from Cape St Claire.   The National Register of Big Trees includes 826 species from every state in the nation. To check out the American Forests’ National Register of Big Trees, contact www. americanforests.org; for Maryland look at dnr.maryland.gov

Wherever they set their roots — in your yard, on a street, in a public park, a field or a state forest — a tree’s gifts are many.  Outside of their sheer aesthetic value, trees provide much of the oxygen we breathe, homes and habitat for many wildlife species, soil retention and watershed protection, and energy saving benefits.  Big or not, they should be treasured.

Check out our list and driving tour of some of the biggest trees we have found so far in Cape St Claire.  And many thanks to all the homeowners who graciously shared their trees with us.

If you would like to nominate a champion tree, check out the Cape Conservation Corps website for instructions on how to measure how many points your favorite tree is and how it might stack up as a Champion.  Or email us at trees@capeconservationcorps.org and we’ll come visit!