Tall, bark and definitely handsome

Dennis McCann E-MAIL

If you think life is tough on us, imagine being a tree.

The giant sequoia known as the Washington Tree - believed to be the second-largest tree in the world, stretching 254 feet high in its heyday - may not be with us much longer. It suffered severe damage in a 2003 fire, and officials at Sequoia National Park recently revealed heavy snow and strong wind had caused further harm, reducing its height to 115 feet and leaving only a few branches of sparse foliage.

It's like a bent over, balding old man but with roots. It's believed to be between 2,500 and 3,000 years old, which is a long time to survive, but if forests had hospice care the poor Washington Tree would be in bed, biding its time.

"It's just a shame," park ranger Mary Anne Carlton was quoted as saying, and you just know that all over America big tree people nodded in sad agreement.

A 'cult' following

Maybe you didn't know there were big tree people. There are, lots of them, people who watch for big trees, who measure them and re-measure them, who respect big trees for what they've survived, people who think that they shall never see a poem as lovely as, say, a 78-foot tall Black Spruce with a 62-inch circumference next to a beaver pond in Taylor County.

There is one of those, by the way, and it's a national champion of its species. And it's not the only one in Wisconsin, though our most prominent former national champ - the famous MacArthur Pine, named after the famous Gen. Douglas MacArthur by a Milwaukee newspaperman in 1946 - was felled by fire in 2001. At its highest point, the pine in Forest County stood 145 feet tall until lightning took some off the top and carved a big hole out of the base, but for 20 years it was the largest white pine in the nation.

Remember those big tree people? After the MacArthur came down for good, its fans held a memorial service in the forest.

A guide to the big ones

R. Bruce Allison understands the sentiment. A consulting arborist and an author, Allison has just released "Wisconsin's Champion Trees: A Tree Hunter's Guide," which updates his 1980 book on the same subject.

After 25 years, it was high time for a new guide, he said, because "trees are dynamic, growing and dying," and, as in boxing and baseball, champions come and go.

Take the giant cottonwood in Montello that, according to a sign at its base and the claim of most proud Montellans, is the largest tree in Wisconsin.

Well, as Dick Rideout of the state Division of Forestry put it, "It used to be."

Or as Allison put it, "It depends on how you measure it." And by his measure, which relies mostly on the circumference measured at chest height, a cottonwood in Dodge County is bigger than that in Montello. And when measured according to the circumference in inches, height-and-crown spread in a feet point system favored by American Forests, an industry group, Allison said a cottonwood in Sharon, in Walworth County, deserves the title of state's largest tree.

Cottonwoods, obviously, are better contenders for the honor than, say, the Common Pear, though one of those in the village of Pewaukee is nonetheless the state champion in its species. That's still something.

But in the arbor game (just like in the ardor game) size is only one component.

Generations-long life

"I'm particularly fascinated by those trees with the great longevity, even though they might not be as large as the cottonwood," Allison said. For example, he cites an oak in Dousman that boasts a circumference of 249 inches, which according to the system used for aging trees means "we can probably pretty comfortably say this tree is around 400 years old.

"That would bring us back to . . . pre-European arrival. One has to have great respect for that tree for having survived wind storms, tornadoes and 400 Wisconsin winters. For me it's not the size but the longevity, the generations of people that have gone by" while the tree lived on.

Allison's revised "Wisconsin's Champion Trees" contains locations and measurements for 153 species of Wisconsin champion trees, as well as information on how to measure big trees and other topics. "The variety of species we have here is remarkable," he said. The book is $14.95 in paperback and available from www.wisconsinbookpublishing.com and bookstores.

Champion registry

Also, Rideout keeps a registry of champion trees, even the state's national winners. Because of different measuring protocols, some results may vary from Allison's list. For more information and details about the Wisconsin Big Tree Society, an informal group of enthusiasts who keep tabs on big trees, visit dnr.wi.gov/org/land/forestry/uf/champion/.

Later this year Allison also will release "Every Root an Anchor: Wisconsin's Famous and Historic Trees," and you can bet I'll be back to tell some of those stories. Because while it is true, as Allison says, that trees are dynamic, growing and dying, don't despair when the inevitable - even if it is a shame - does happen.

Life goes on.

In 1988, veterans who served under Gen. MacArthur and officials from the Forest Service shot down seed bearing pine cones from the MacArthur Pine. The seeds were taken to a nursery in Kentucky, nurtured along and later replanted in forests around the globe, including in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin.

In a few hundred years, they should really be something.

E-mail dmccann@journalsentinel.com.