Year of the Tree

In case you didn’t notice it in the most recent state budget, North Carolina has plans to open several new state parks and natural areas in the coming months. That’s good news for the habitats and ecosystems that will be protected and preserved and for the people of North Carolina who will have new opportunities to access these areas of natural and cultural significance.

New property means new land surveys and clearly marked boundaries to convey what is and is not state land.

During a recent boundary marking effort at a new state park unit in western North Carolina, this writer and the work crew he was attached to was introduced to a tulip tree, or yellow-poplar, of such exceptional size and stature that it brought up the question – what’s the largest poplar tree in North Carolina? The answer, according to the N.C. Forest Service champion tree registry is a 144-foot behemoth in Greene County with a circumference of nearly 23 feet. The boundary marking team was not equipped to measure the specimen before it on the Buncombe/Haywood county line, but it very well could give the currently recognized state champion a run for its money. In the eastern United States, hardwood forests can achieve “old growth” status in 150 years without any human disturbance, and locations that meet the criteria have become exceedingly rare. In the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Southeast, only 1.5% of the landscape is considered to be old growth.

Not all old trees grow within old growth forests. Many are found in urban environments, cemeteries and family-owned pasturelands. The NCFS champion tree registry identifies the largest individuals of hundreds of native and naturalized species. The list can be found at ncforestservice.gov/Urban/nc_champion_big_ trees_database.

Recognizing old trees gives them value for their ties to the past. The oldest known tree in North Carolina is a bald cypress on the Black River that radio-carbon dating shows to be around 2,624-years-old – that’s 605 B.C. The fact that we live among such ancient organisms is a sobering reminder of the briefness of human life and the duty we have to preserve and protect these living emissaries from the past.