VA State Champion Northern Red Oak 11/28/2010

[Will Blozan]

ENTS,

On my way back from a family visit last week I made time to stop and see the Virginia State Champion northern red oak near Manassas, Virginia. The tree is in Bull Run Park and scores a whopping 422 big tree points. Here is a link to the tree: http://www.cnr.vt.edu/4H/BIGTREE/bigtree_detail.cfm?AutofieldforPrimaryKey=978

               

                       

                       

Whole tree stitch

               

               

However, a few issues arose when I got to the tree.

1) It was not a tree but a partial fusion of two separate trees

               

                       

                       

Twins

               

               

2) It was 123.9 feet tall, not 148 feet as stated

               

                       

                                       

               

3) It was not a northern red oak

               

                       

                       

Shumard oak leaves

                       

Classic shumard leaves001.jpg (112.7 KiB) Viewed 558 times

               

               

This fluted double tree grows in a floodplain forest and is in fact, a shumard oak (Quercus shumardii).

Will Blozan

[eliahd24]

wow- once again, egregious errors on a state list!!  

there is a legit 400 point Quercus rubra adjacent to Emory University that I just nominated as a GA state champ.  It's about the same height as this one, maybe a tad more. 20' 1/2" CBH.  I'll post a pic when I get a chance.
~Eli

[dbhguru]

Will, Eli,

   There is no justification for such egregious errors in tree identification and measurement. Who engineered such a problem plagued system? Is it really worth supporting?

Bob

[James Parton]

Will,

Thanks for including a leaf photo of the shumard oak on this post. I have no familiarity with this one.

JP

[tsharp]

Will: I am kind of curious. Do you plan to contact the Virginia Big Tree coordinator as to your findings. It probably has not escaped your notice that this tree was nominated and last measured by Jeff Kirwan - Virginia's Big Tree coordinator. The Virginia big tree website also has a link to the ENTS website and it apparently is not used .
Turner Sharp

[Will Blozan]

Turner,

I sent him a link to this post already, as well as the Turkey Run trip. In the past he has been receptive to ENTS input and has said he will update with ENTS data. I also said I would volunteer as a state verifier as time permits.

Will

[dbhguru]

Will,

   That's a relief. If the state coordinator is receptive to cleaning up the register, that's a big step in the right direction.

Bob

[Steve Galehouse]

Will-

Shumard oak is sort of an odd beast---we shouldn't have it in the woods around where I live, but we have a lot of oaks intermediate between northern red x pin x black, and I wonder if these might in fact be Shumard. Range maps don't show it to be in NE Ohio, but your photos sure look like trees I frequently see, especially "red oaks" on floodplains that are obviously not pin oaks.

Steve

[Will Blozan]

Steve,

Sounds like a high possibility they could be shumard oak. Perhaps you can expand the range maps!

Will

[Will Blozan]

ENTS,

Update 12/6/2010: the VA coordinator emailed today: this tree has been removed from the VA Champion Tree List.

Will