[Birds chirping] [Upbeat folk music] NARRATOR: Growing majestically within Maryland's 2.7 million acres of woodlands are 12 national champion trees, which are recognized as the largest of their species in the U.S.

What does it take to be a champion?

A little help from Mother Nature and a combination of eye-popping measurements, circumference, height, and crown spread.

We are fortunate they are part of our everyday landscape.

[Bell ringing] [Bird chirping] ALEX STRACKE: We had just gotten married, and he showed me this Zillow listing of this house.

It was out of our price range, it was not the right time.

I thought he was crazy, but he did not give up.

FRANK STRACKE: I am big into architecture and houses and how they look, and uh, we were on a family vacation with her parents.

And her mom and I saw it, and Alex didn't want to come because she didn't want to fall in love with it.

So, I just came here with her mom, and it was just us two and a realtor and just viewed it and, fell in love with it.

ALEX: The Gist family acquired this property in 1774.

The Gist family had, some ties to George Washington, and they played a pretty um, important role in the Revolutionary War.

This house was built in 1795.

There was an addition built in, 1860 and that's when the summer kitchen, which we call the bell house, was built.

The tree is the largest black mulberry tree in North America.

And from what we understand, it dates back to as far as 1795.

FRANK: The realization that we had an award-winning tree was once we were moved in and, you know, we saw the plaque stating that it was an award-winning tree.

And then you just see the magnitude of it.

ALEX: We knew it was big, but we didn't know it was like a champion.

FRANK: Yeah, which the former owners took a lot of pride in, obviously.

We feel it's our responsibility to maintain it as best as we can, so a lot of maintenance goes into it.

We get routine tree work annually to just reduce weight of it.

The root system for the tree is vast and goes all throughout the driveway, presumably, um maintenance, mulching, weeding the bed, cabling.

And, this tree is the last tree on our property to have the leaves fall every year, 'round mid to late November.

ALEX: Last year, we got a text message from a random number, and it was a woman named Bryant Whalen.

She's from Alabama, and she is actually a distant family member of the Gist family.

She's a descendant of the Gist family and she's an artist.

She collected leaves from all over our property from different plants, including the mulberry tree.

And she took them home and she made the most beautiful silk scarf.

And she sent it to us as a thank you.

Having this tree on our property feels like a pretty big responsibility.

We know that, you know, when we bought the house, we were told that it was in its twilight years.

We don't really know how much longer it will, um, be in decent health, I would say.

So, we're just kind of babying it because it is such a special, significant tree.

And I think, um you know, we only take off branches that are necessary and we just kind of cross our fingers in bad weather [laughs] that it um, doesn't lose much.

FRANK: As you can tell by the sheer size of the tree and its proximity to our house, it truly makes it feel like it's an extension of our family.

[Bell ringing] NARRATOR: One of Maryland's national champions was first discovered in Kentucky by early settlers.

Ironically, the nation's largest Kentucky coffeetree resides in Montgomery County.

NICK WEBER: Often a Kentucky coffeetree was given to a new house owner or, where a marriage had taken place.

But when we moved here 38 years ago, I didn't move here because of that tree.

I moved because it was a property that I could develop my gardening interests.

As you can see, roses and dahlias are, are some of my primary things.

But uh, at that time, uh we started having open gardens on the weekends, so when the roses were at peak.

And uh, to think that I could, uh help afford my hobby, I- I learned how to propagate roses.

And so, we had roses in pots and people at rose time.

For three weekends, we would have sales for the roses.

And uh, during one of those sales, a woman saw the big tree, and she said, "Nick," she said, "There's a big tree, champion tree program that uh, is ongoing."

She said, "And I think they should take a look at your tree."

And then it wasn't long after that that Joe Howard came, and they measured the tree and they uh said, "It is a big Kentucky coffeetree."

At that time, I think there were probably 2 or 3 larger than it.

A friend in in another garden club said, "Well, you know, the folks down the street have a Kentucky coffeetree and it's very large."

I went and had an opportunity at some point to take a look at it and said, "Oh my goodness, this is bigger than, haven't you, aren't you interested in making it a Champion Tree?"

And uh, by that time, though uh, two of those, two of those other large trees had succumbed to storms or something like that.

And in the interim, Joe finally came by and says, well you're anointed, "You now are the champion Kentucky coffeetree."

Brookside Gardens actually has a tour of the champion trees in in this area, those large trees uh, and in fact, they put this on that route.

And so, we had for several years a bus of tours in the fall, to see the tree.

By the way this is a male tree.

They're dioecious, Kentucky coffeetrees.

This is a male and doesn't have seeds.

This is a seed pod, and it has six p- six seeds in it.

The males do propagate by suckers and within 100 feet of this male tree are pups.

There must be 50 or 100 of them on the property.

Going back to the other story about the people down the street, they finally, after some consideration, finally agreed to have their tree confirmed.

And in fact it was, larger than this tree.

Our tree had been bumped!

But in the fall of that same year, a hurricane came through, and it had two major big branches, and one of the huge branches fell, got knocked off and cut the grandmother's, house cottage in half.

Luckily, she wasn't hurt by it, but they had to take down the tree.

The following spring I got a call from Joe Howard saying, "Nick, you're back."

[Laughs] I kind of chuckled and said, "Okay, we'll go ahead and have fun with the Kentucky coffeetree again."

[Guitar music] GEARY SCHWEMMER: Hi we're here today on the beautiful campus of McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland, to measure this beautiful American elm tree behind me that you can see.

I have an interest in getting more publicly accessible big trees, uh measured in Carroll County.

And since this campus is more or less open to the public, it's a great place to look for big trees, 'cause the campus has been here for a long time and a lot of trees have grown to large, mature sizes.

One of the Big Tree uh Program policies is to always have at least two people measure trees for safety's sake and other reasons.

Practical reasons, too.

And today I have college intern Pat with me, he's an intern with the Forestry Board.

Uh, thanks for coming to help me measure trees today, Pat.

PATRICK NASH-MERCADO: Any time.

GEARY: Appreciate it.

So, the way they score trees is they measure them in a fashion, and this originated with assessing how much a marketable timber is in a forest.

Um, by measuring the girth or the diameter or circumference of the trunk.

First of all, at what they call breast height, which is 4.5 feet above ground level.

And I think we're just going to go a little bit lower to get below that burl, because we don't want to add too many uh... falseness.

Bring it up a little bit if you could, Pat.

It looks like you're going down slope a little bit.

Hold on.

Go back a little bit.

Let's raise it.

Yeah.

Right there.

Go ahead.

Just try to keep it level.

[Leaves crunching] GEARY SCHWEMMER: You go all around.

Keep coming.

What do we got, 13-9?

PATRICK: Yeah.

GEARY: All right.

GEARY: 13 feet, nine inches.

And then the height, in feet.

I'll get the hypsometer out.

This is what we use to measure height and crown spread, because it's got a laser that measures distance and it's got a built in, clinometer.

And what do you think's the highest point?

PATRICK: The branch a little to the right.

GEARY: To the right?

And it curves to the left?

GEARY: Mm hmm.

Yeah, I agree with you there.

And there's, it shoots off into two, I'm thinking the one toward the back.

PATRICK: Yeah, thats it.

GEARY: Probably the higher one.

Let me see if I can get a reading on it.

And because it's, just a twig I'm going to go with the three-point method, so that we don't actually have to hit it.

We just have to get the angle right.

So, we get uh three measurements.

First one is a horizontal: to get us the distance to the trunk.

Got 115 feet.

And I take a measurement at the bottom.

It tells me it's minus two degrees at four feet.

And it's going to add the distance to the top, which is... 85 feet total.

And then the crown spread in two directions, usually the longest, and then at right angles to that.

So Pat, I'm going to get you to stand on, let's see, let's go kind of along the direction of the sidewalk here.

You go over there until you get to the drip line on that side, and I'll go over in this direction, until I get to the drip line on this side.

And then I'm going to shoot you with the laser, get the distance.

PATRICK: All right.

GEARY: I got 89 feet.

All right, let's go that way at right angles to where we were.

You're going to have to move that way a little bit.

Okay, I can see you.

I'm getting 101, 101.

The crown spread, we measure in two directions, orthogonal directions, right angles, in feet.

And then we divide that by four.

We average the two and divide by four.

And add that to the height in feet and then the circumference in inches.

And that's the score.

And it's eligible for- to be called a big tree in the Maryland Big Tree Program if it's 70 percent of the current state champion for that species.

If there is no state champion, it is the state champion.

Um and if there's no trees of that type in your county, it can be a county champion if it's only 60 percent of the state champion, until something bigger's measured.

So, let's add up the points.

We've got a crown spread, let's see 89 and 101, that's uh, 95 is the average.

Right.

And then we've got 165 inches, circumference, a height of 84 feet.

Ninety-five divided by four, and that would be, uh twenty-one and a half.

Two hundred and seventy-one.

Let's see what the uh, the current county champion is in terms of points.

Um, two hundred twenty-seven.

We got a new champion in Carroll County.

How about that?

All right, success!

The Maryland Big Tree Program, a statewide program started 100 years ago by Maryland's first forester, Fred Besley.

He was charged with assessing all the forests and woodlands in the state of Maryland, and in his travels, he saw a lot of neat looking big trees.

He took pictures of, wrote descriptions of locations, and he published a little book afterwards.

And it was such a big hit with his colleagues, and with the public, that he decided to start a contest, statewide contest, and get people to nominate big trees.

He also helped kickstart a national program, um fairly modeled after the Maryland program.

And eventually every state in the United States fell in line and developed their own Big Tree Program.

But Maryland's the first, oldest and the best, I would say.

NARRATOR: The Maryland Big Tree program was started in 1925 by the state's first official forester, Mr.

Fred Besley.

The program generated considerable public interest as Marylanders became aware of forest management and began scouting for champion candidates.

More importantly, the program became a model for the rest of the nation.

As part of his work, Besley kept a journal detailing his forestry endeavors.

That journal is now part of the Maryland State Archives.

RACHEL FRAZIER: The Maryland State Archives is the main repository for government records of permanent value, um such as birth, death, marriage, land records, court records, and many more.

We also have wonderful special collections of non-government records, which are privately donated, like newspapers, religious records, photographs, maps, and more.

MARIA DAY: What we have here is a scrapbook um, that came to us um from the Maryland Board of Forestry.

Um, it's a scrapbook that dates from 1915 to 1925, and it belonged to Fred W. Besley, the first State Forester in Maryland.

CAMILLE DiMARCO: This was once a post-bound book that the posts are no longer here with us.

And the book, itself... Is very, very hard to touch because in the handling it could crumble.

So, I will do... the handling here for Maria, so she can talk about some of the wonderful images inside that are folded up.

MARIA: There's political cartoons are wonderful in these books um, they give you some insight into the industries, in this case, um looking at uh the way trees are depicted.

It's really interesting.

[Paper rustling] MARIA: And uh this is exactly the time period where it was becoming very common for photographs to appear in newspapers, in addition to drawings.

So, you're getting a lot of news photography as well.

CAMILLE: As an artifact, it is kind of cool because very rarely do you see a scrapbook quite put together like this, with the layers upon layers of clippings.

MARIA: So, clearly Mr.

Besley is working on trying to make sure that he remembers the political or social cartoons of the time, in addition to the articles and the information about the forests in the state.

What I'm going to be pulling are some uh lantern slides, which uh was part of a teaching collection that forester Fred Besley had that were used to educate foresters, volunteers, other people.

It's a really important collection for the state.

Show what these trees looked like in their prime, probably when they were being focused on, possibly selected as champion trees.

These are very fragile sheets of glass, which have a piece of film inserted between them.

And they would have been used with an old-fashioned style projector with a giant light bulb in it to show it on the wall.

It's amazing this collection has survived.

NARRATOR: Many trees have stories, and some of those stories become part of local lore.

Perhaps the best example of this is the Goshen Elm, located in Montgomery County.

Threatened by residential development, the quarter acre lot was purchased by a local citizen and donated to Montgomery County.

The county created a micro park highlighting the tree's significance.

COLTER BURKES: And we're here today at the Goshen Elm Conservation Park, um which is all about the Goshen Elm, which is an English elm.

The Goshen Elm is a very high visibility tree, so it's well known throughout the county.

Um it's the largest in um, the U.S., some think it's the largest English elm in the world.

The tree's being maintained really well, it's in really good condition now and really healthy.

So, I think as long as we do that and keep it healthy, the public is happy.

This park uh was made about 22 years ago, um specifically to conserve the Goshen Elm.

This park is conserved as it is, so there's no development or improvements that will happen on this property.

Um, there's actually a memorandum of understanding that's between the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission, uh the Maryland Department of Transportation Public Works, and the Goshen Elm Alliance, uh that's put forth to set roles for each organization to care for the tree and preserve the health of the tree as long as the tree is alive.

DANA SMITH: It's been really interesting living next to this tree.

We did not know until the day we closed on the house that because of the roots of the tree, that there was a conservation easement on our property.

We were limited to a five-foot fence, we had to have all of the post holes hand dug.

They were not allowed to drive a crane or a Bobcat or anything with building supplies.

Everything had to be loaded into the front yard and carried in by hand.

We were limited on style.

We were not allowed to paint the fence.

Everything had to look natural and be natural wood, so that it would match the environment of a park in the county.

We aren't allowed to put in a pool, a hot tub.

We had to get permission to dig for our play structure in the back so that when we put in the posts that held it up, it didn't impinge the roots of the tree.

If we're planting anything in the yard, including a garden, it has to be either native species or annuals that can be ripped out before they seed so that it doesn't compete with the tree.

COLTER BURKES: Our role, in Montgomery Parks, is to preserve the grounds that surround the tree.

So that includes mowing the grass, um keeping a mulch ring around the tree, and improving soil health that's around the tree.

Um, DOT, um... the DOT arborist is the lead on taking care of the tree.

And their role, uh historically, has been to take care of everything above ground, which is pruning the tree um and also treating the tree for Dutch elm disease.

Um so as far as what we've done in the past is, we've mulched the tree to keep the root zone uh healthy, we've uh aerated the soil um by adding compost, compost-tea to the soil, to keep the ecosystem healthy over over, the last 20 years.

DANA SMITH: I think it's a beautiful tree.

I think it's really funny that the developer who named our court Rock Elm Way had no idea, when they developed the property, that it was actually an English elm and tried to persuade us all to change the name of our court about a year in, which obviously didn't happen.

COLTER BURKES: When you highlight trees like the Goshen Elm and other champion trees for their large size or how old they are, I feel that it does a real good service for the public that brings awareness to trees, um and also awareness to how we preserve trees and why they're important.

DANA SMITH: We get strangers standing next to our house all the time, whether they're playing Pokémon Go, whether they're, celebrating the tree, picnicking under the tree.

COLTER BURKES: It's awesome to have a program that really highlights, these larger trees, because sometimes people are drawn to like the largest or the oldest.

Um so, I really appreciate these programs.

And so, I think that's a great thing that they do for us, as urban foresters, managing all of our tree population and the parks.

DANA SMITH: They could date the tree to about colonial era.

They're not obviously exactly sure who owned the land in colonial times or who planted the tree, but it's, it predates the state of Maryland, as a state, which I think is pretty cool.

[Insect sounds] MICHAEL RAUPP: I think we really learned about the importance of invasive species with the decline of our American chestnut trees when we imported a pathogen from Asia that simply wiped out our beautiful chestnut trees, which were the dominant species of our eastern hardwood forests.

FEMALE VOICE ON INFOMERCIAL: Over 100 years ago, there were billions of American chestnut trees across the eastern U.S.

Humans depended on the strong wood to build houses and furniture and fence poles and telephone poles and railroads.

But this was all about to come to a sudden end.

There were other chestnut species growing in Europe and Asia, and in the 1800s people started importing them to the U.S.

What they didn't realize is that they were also bringing new chestnut diseases with them.

Chestnut blight was discovered in 1904.

It started killing trees in the north.

Within 50 years chestnut blight had spread throughout the entire range.

The blight caused cankers in the bark, which strangled the tree, killing it down to the roots.

Some root systems survived and sent up sprouts, only to die back again from blight before they could produce nuts.

The tree is now considered functionally extinct because it rarely reproduces in the wild.

MICHAEL RAUPP: The next big lesson came with urbanization, when we simply created a monoculture of American elms, the perfect tree for a city.

However, we imported a pathogen, and we imported the vector, a small bark beetle that could carry the fungus from one tree to the next.

We lost 40 million American elm trees throughout the nation.

That decline continues through today.

[Solemn harp music] NARRATOR: Once upon a time, the American elm was America's most iconic native tree.

Dominating the urban landscape, it shaded cities from Boston to Dallas to Sacramento.

More than 5,300 Elm Streets across the nation confirmed the tree's beauty.

In the late 1920s, the arrival of Dutch elm disease brought about catastrophic changes.

By the 1980s, an estimated 60 million of the trees had succumbed to the disease.

Suddenly, Elm Street existed in name only.

One of the few survivors is located on private property in Baltimore County.

The nation's largest American elm, it towers over its wooded peers and almost every manmade structure.

ANITA STAPLETON: We bought the property in 2002, and we understood that there was some history to the tree and that it was an important tree.

CHUCK STAPLETON: A Maryland State Park ranger, uh is the one I talked to about the date.

And we're- we're all estimating, but he told me the, in the early 2000s that he thought the tree was probably near 300 years old, give or take, either way.

And so, we bought it right after the turn of the century, so I date it back to 1700, before this was a country.

The tree is in the back corner of the property.

So why don't we take a walk and show you exactly where it is and what it looks like?

I grew up in the South, and I've seen some huge trees in the state of Georgia, my native state.

When we bought this house and I went around the property, I knew this elm tree was huge.

How huge?

I didn't realize until the state people and then the national people came out and measured it.

ANITA: I decided to do a little investigation and called the Maryland Tree Service, and uh they decided to come out and measure the tree.

Well, they were pretty excited when they got here.

And they left here that day telling us that we had a champion, a state champion for the state of Maryland.

Probably a year after we became a state champion, we got a call from the Department of Natural Resources asking us if they could submit our tree, uh for a championship status.

And, of course, we said yes.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources sent us this certificate uh that certifies that our tree was a state champion.

And then when it became an a uh national champion, we also have a certificate that shows that too.

CHUCK: We were pretty proud of it then, especially realizing that it had a baby brother and baby sister right nearby on the adjacent property.

And so, it's kind of an interesting, interesting thing to find that you have three huge elms and a national champion uh in your backyard.

The Cromwell family owned this 200 acres of land up on top of one of the highest points in the county and built their family home here 100 years ago.

Many years later, when they decided to subdivide and have some other homes built, this rock in front of me and that rock there, and the one you see in the distance by this tree, formed part of the lot line.

And, even today, the surveyors use this as a corner of our property.

Another big rock is down in that corner.

So, it's kind of interesting how they decided to incorporate this into the size of the lot.

[Bird calls] CHUCK: We have lost two big components of the tree over the 20 years we have been here and owned this property.

Uh one huge center piece that went all the way to the top and made the crown so big, uh we lost it in a storm.

And then several years later, we lost a big arm that sticks out to the side, uh actually over on to a neighbor's property.

It was huge as well.

And yet, so we thought the tree would die.

And yet that's been 7 or 8 years ago, and it still blooms every year, and it's still massive and amazing.

We've had a couple of people call and ask, could they come, and and photograph it and uh just see the tree and walk around a little bit.

And after it got some publicity and got listed in magazines and so forth.

ANITA: And and one fellow who was interested in the tree actually came and took some photographs and then came back when the little saplings came out and wanted a couple little baby trees for his collection.

So, we were glad to oblige.

We have a celebrity tree!

MICHAEL RAUPP: Our urban forests are under a variety of threats.

And we over planted trees like the beautiful ash trees, which are also spectacular in cities and throughout natural habitats.

Then, we again imported another pest from Asia, the dastardly emerald ash borer.

And we've lost more than 200 million ash trees throughout the United States as a result of this, dramatically changing the ecosystems, not only in our cities and suburban areas, but in natural areas.

There are several native insects that bore into ash trees, but none are as lethal as the emerald ash borer.

The hallmark of the emerald ash borer is a "D" shaped exit hole.

So, when the adult emerges from the tree, it comes out and the hole it emerges from is shaped like the letter "D."

When we see the letter "D," it stands for doom.

It means that ash tree is infested with emerald ash borers.

[Insect sounds] NARRATOR: Just as a tree can grow into greatness.

It can also fall from greatness.

PHYLLIS STEPHENS: We moved here in 1982.

The ash tree was here when we moved here, and it's it's huge.

Probably, maybe 200 years old.

[Dog barking] PHYLLIS STEPHENS: One day some man came, came to the door and knocked and said he wanted to, he wanted to measure my tree.

And I'm like uh, okay.

I mean, I said, sure, you know.

So he went ahead, and so I did get um, a certificate from the big the big tree, place.

My husband had wanted to put uh one on the tree, in plastic and then put a sign down underneath of it.

And, you know, put a light on it that would shine on the, on the sign and tell about the tree.

How big it is, how big around it is, and how tall, and how wide the, the branches spread, you know, because when it, when it was alive, it was beautiful.

[Bird chirping] PHYLLIS STEPHENS: Frank, probably 30 years ago or so, I don't know if he had a man lift at that time, I think he climbed that tree and put the ropes up there for the swing for the kids.

And now we have 16 grandchildren and three great grands.

I noticed um about, probably around three, four years ago that it didn't bud out as much.

I don't think it had any leaves on it.

I think it was the vines that were growing up that we saw.

And this year, I mean, it's it's really dead.

And that's really a shame, you know, what bugs can do to uh, to beautiful trees.

It's a sad thing.

[Birds calling] [Chain saw buzzing] CORTLEY CARTER: I met the Stephens they, when they moved up here from Kentucky they started going to our church and Sunday school.

And that's when I met 'em, and met the bro- Frank and the brothers.

And uh, I've known- that was probably the '70s.

So it was, I've known them quite a while.

So, they're good people.

[Chainsaw engine humming] MICHAEL RAUPP: We now have the spotted lanternfly, more than 17 states are getting a taste of this right now, including Maryland.

It's in almost every county.

VIDEO NARRATOR: Spotted lanternfly can damage plants and make them more susceptible to disease, drought and other stresses.

How?

The spotted lanternfly uses a long, pointy mouth part called a proboscis, to pierce plant stems and drink the sap.

This activity can cause wilting or leaf loss, and over time can lead to a decline in plant growth.

Plant sap has a lot more water and sugar than spotted lanternfly needs.

So as it feeds, the insect absorbs the nutrients it wants and expels the rest as waste product called honeydew.

Honeydew leaves a sugary, sticky mess all over plants, vehicles, yards, anything underneath where spotted lanternfly is feeding.

Spotted lanternfly impacts agriculture, the ecosystem and our lives.

MICHAEL RAUPP: We're already seeing declines up at ground zero in Pennsylvania, where things like praying mantises, spiders, more than 50 species of birds, I call it mother nature's hit squad, are putting a beat down on spotted lanternflies.

We're beginning to see that here in Maryland as well, but we're probably 3 to 5 years out before we see dramatic reductions in those spotted lanternfly populations.

But it's going to happen.

We've got a new one on the horizon, the zigzag sawfly.

A defoliator, again, of our beautiful American elms.

We've got one called the crepe myrtle bark scale, an invader from the south that's decimating our crepe myrtles here in Maryland and on the east coast.

The one I'm most concerned with now is beech leaf disease.

This one is going to dramatically change our beautiful forests that contain beech.

It's a super important tree, not only in its own right, but for all the wildlife it supports.

In addition, those beech trees that that make our landscapes gorgeous, they're deeply threatened by this.

We're going to lose literally tens of thousands of beech trees.

Our forests here in the east are going to be dramatically different a decade from now from what they are today.

NARRATOR: Sometimes a champion does not require you to crane your neck.

In those instances, growing into greatness takes on an entirely different meaning.

Case in point, the nation's largest buttonbush.

BRADLEY SIMPSON: Here at Woodend Sanctuary, we manage 40 acres of natural habitat, about 30 acres of forest, four acres of meadow, and then the rest in conservation and landscaping with native plant gardens.

My job is particularly to manage the forested area for habitat quality, native plants, and reduction of invasive species.

We're one of the oldest organizations, uh for environmental stewardship in the D.C.

area, been operating here since 1897.

Uh, we transitioned into this location at Woodend Sanctuary in Chevy Chase in 1960.

So, our mansion was designed by a famous architect, John Russell Pope.

It was designed for Miss Marion Wells, who is the previous owner of the mansion and this property, Woodend Sanctuary.

Which is- the namesake comes from her honeymoon location with her husband.

Miss Wells was an avid member of the Audubon Natural Society at that time, and in the 1960s, when she passed, she left the sanctuary to us to become our first headquarters.

We changed our name from Audubon Natural Society to Nature Forward just a couple years ago to remove our association with the history of John James Audubon, his history of being a slave owner, and removal of that name also removes our association with the National Audubon.

So the buttonbush, is right here behind me, is situated in one of our first native plant gardens that was established here at Woodend Nature Sanctuary.

The buttonbush is named, well, for the spherical flowers.

It's, actually, a grouping of many, many flowers on the ends of each of the twigs.

If you look very closely, you'll notice that each flower has four small white petals.

And the, kind of like the spike, or spire that's extending from the middle of each flower is the female part of the flower that catches the pollen when bees are visiting around and flying, buzzing around.

The buttonbush is pretty identifiable with opposite leaves, uh leaves occurring two at a time along the stem.

In some cases, you can even see leaves occurring three at a time, which is called whorled, three or more leaves occurring at one single point.

Um, so, it's very easily identifiable that way.

And of course, with this showy flower in the summer you can easily identify it.

You typically see it growing in very wet areas, even in standing water.

It can really tolerate these saturated conditions for long periods of time.

You know where, where do we define the line between tree and shrub?

It's always dependent on who you talk to.

So, the Forest Inventory Analysis Group has a general definition for shrub, which is very vague.

It says that shrubs are typically multi-stemmed, and generally, under five meters in height.

Uh, but those uh, it leaves- it leaves room for interpretation.

Um as we see in our buttonbush, it is a multi-stem tree and is less than five meters.

So, in the Forest Inventory Analysis they might consider this a shrub.

Um so it's an interesting distinction.

And we don't really fully understand, because I've seen many shrubs that definitely break the rule of shrub because they're tall and single stem.

The buttonbush is also, is a great thing to come see at Woodend, but Woodend boasts a wheelchair accessible trail, wheelchair accessible nature playground, a pond, a restored stream, 30 acres of forest to explore on natural surface trails, and many native plants that you can see along the way.

So, I highly recommend you coming out here, not just for the buttonbush, but for all the other plants and wildflowers that we have around.

NARRATOR: Completed in 1790, Hampton was the largest private home in America.

Consisting of 25,000 acres in northern Baltimore County, it was initially designed as a tobacco plantation.

Commissioned by Charles Ridgely, the property remained in the family until 1948, when it was acquired by the National Park Service.

Only 63 acres of the original plot remain, but among those acres is an impressive array of trees.

Today, we join a tour highlighting some of the notable specimens.

[Soft footsteps] MARC LIPNICK: We're coming up to our first tree.

This is a saucer magnolia.

It's the state champion saucer magnolia.

We just missed the flowering.

Uh it probably was spectacular.

LINDA BARKER: This one, that was 1830.

MARC LIPNICK: This is a non-native.

So, it definitely was imported.

PARK RANGER: You can walk around if you like.

Just, we ask that you don't climb on the trees, don't pull leaves or petals or anything off.

Yeah, this tree in particular is very delicate.

People will be standing right next to the sign that says, "Don't climb on the trees," and they'll climb on the trees.

MARC LIPNICK: Onwards to our next tree.

So, these trees here are estimated to be, circa... LINDA BARKER: Late 1700s.

MARC LIPNICK: Late 1700s these were planted.

Yeah.

Southern catalpa.

The cedar of Lebanon, this is mid 1800s.

So, you can imagine what this looked like from inside the mansion, looking out at this.

It just was, just spectacular.

PARK RANGER: And the story is that Eliza Ridgely brought this, as a seedling, in a shoe box back from Europe and planted it herself.

[Chatter of conversation] [Laughter] MARC LIPNICK: From the other side of the terrace, looking back at this tree, you'll realize how big this tree is.

TOUR GROUP MEMBER: What year is it in?

MARC LIPNICK: 1848.

TOUR GROUP MEMBER: You said it was a linden tree?

MARC: European linden.

Most of the trees here are either county champions, and a lot of them are like in the top five in the state.

The saucer magnolia is the only one that's a state champion.

But uh, this is a county champion.

Uh, the cedar of Lebanon, which is the showstopper here, that is also a county champion.

That's number two, I believe, in the state.

MAN: Yeah- MARC: There's one bigger one, believe it or not.

It's hard to imagine.

TOUR GROUP MEMBER: Do you know where?

MARC: I think it was in Prince George's County?

TOUR GROUP: Thank you very much.

MARC: Thank you.

[Applause] MARC: Thank you all for coming.

[Clapping] PRES.

BILL FERGUSON: All right, let's uh recognize the majority leader.

SEN.

NANCY KING: For 100 years, volunteers for the Maryland Big Tree Committee have worked tirelessly to locate and recognize Maryland's largest trees of every species known, common and uncommon, and we congratulate them on their centennial.

Mr.

President, we have a resolution.

BILL FERGUSON: Clerk will read the resolution in full.

CLERK: Be it hereby known to all the Senate of Maryland offers its sincerest congratulations to Maryland Big Tree Program in recognition of 100 years of service, providing awareness, knowledge and appreciation for Maryland's largest trees.

The entire membership extends its best wishes on this memorable occasion and directs this resolution be presented on this 18th day February 2025.

BILL FERGUSON: Clerk will call the roll.

CLERK: Mr.

President.

[Chime] BILL FERGUSON: Has everyone recorded their vote?

If so, the clerk... will... take the call.

The Senate of Maryland unanimously celebrates Maryland's Big Tree program, and thanks um our folks from DNR and the incredible work to celebrate uh our incredible tree canopy.

Thank you so much.

[Applause] NARRATOR: The white oak is Maryland's official state tree, and the most famous white oak was the Wye Oak, which was the largest tree of its kind in the U.S.

In 2002, the Wye Oak was toppled by a severe thunderstorm, and for the first time in decades, Maryland needed a new state tree.

One of the trees under consideration was the Travilah Oak.

Complete with its own Wikipedia page, the tree was saved from development and has become an integral part of the local community.

GUY SEMMES: It's really amazing, you know, to see a white oak grow this way.

It's more a live oak, out west, that you'd see growing that way.

And the one that this one replaced that was in Bethesda, the big champion tree, was straight up.

And uh, you can see the branch that grazes the ground.

Kids climb on upon it and can get up.

That's unique to this tree.

Even the um Wye Oak, which was the champion for a long time, was never as well shaped or as healthy as this tree is now, at 330 years.

It's a juxtaposition to the commercial element of the shopping center and this little park and the tree, but there is thought that this tree was planted by man, in someone's front yard, 300 years ago.

Because these trees don't, the white oak doesn't grow this way, typically.

There's some thought that this entrance, uh stone entrance came to a much larger farm.

The history of the property goes, obviously way back.

It was estimated to be, by a professional, 330 years old.

There used to be a small house in this corner.

In, I think 2009, we decided we had to keep the trucks out from parking under the tree and taking naps during lunch.

And, you know, we had Pepco and big trucks just abusing the, the privilege of this beautiful tree.

And that's when we put up the uh, the uh little park and the benches, so the community could use it, and the tree would be protected.

We used to have a fall celebration, uh and I think we started it in 2005, six somewhere in that range.

And it was really well attended, we got, and it was more um rural because we're out here.

We had the police on their horseback, you know, doing activities and controlling crowds and showing what that's like.

We had neighbors that came and set up booths and um, it was a lot of fun.

Everybody in the community enjoyed it.

We've had uh, concerts under the tree.

We've had a couple married under the tree.

I think there's another Queen of the Travilah Oak that was, was uh recognized here under the tree.

CAMERA OPERATOR: And and there she is, ladies and gentlemen, the one, the only, Miss Travilah Oak.

RENE SHAW: This is so amazing.

I cannot wait.

WOMAN: When we came over the hill, and Amy found out they had a banner.

WOMEN: Bye bye friends!

[Squeaking] GUY SEMMES: During one of the Travilah Oak Day parties, another thing that is exceptional about the tree and worth coming out is just what it's like when you get near it.

When you see it from the parking lot, it's one thing, but when you stand next to it, it's a whole different experience.

So, just put your arms around it.

We had, it took 19, small children to reach all the way around it hand-to-hand.

You can see the mass.

You don't really feel the tree until you get up here.

The mass of this is the tree is worth coming out to experience, and you don't get it until you're right next to the tree and look up, I mean these limbs are just incredible.

Neighbors that I grew up with, probably back in the 60s, 70s, wanted to find out how old it was.

And they did a core sample, and I've got documentation of that.

They they pretty much decided that um, well they found at that time that it was well over 250 years old then.

And that core sample is, was not, not legal.

You can't use that to say how old it is.

So, the 330 years we came up with, a Bartlett tree expert that knows old trees and has done a lot of study of this tree.

And he said it's over 330 years old, just by the way he estimates without doing a core sample.

You know we've had, problems with a snowstorm.

We lost a limb right there, which we cut off.

Occasionally we have to prune it, but you can see how healthy it is.

Just by in five years, it's healed.

And um, it- when it wasn't the champion tree, we always said it was the healthiest white oak.

[Chuckles] Even great trees age and the Travilah Oak is showing signs already of of some damage.

You'll see blooms, which are fungus.

All you can do is let it dry at the end of the season and knock it off.

And it doesn't kill it all, but it's a sign that part of what's the problem inside the tree, which is sort of naturally happening to all those white oaks, is blooming to the surface.

What's really going on is only at the base, and only in spots.

So, you see good roots reaching out, all the way to the corner.

And those are pretty massive.

But over the years, it starts.

But this is really only showing you that, you know, that it's got a disease that it's had for probably over 150 to 200 years.

I find people out here snooping it around.

In the fall, I find people coming out and picking up the acorns.

Um, and uh the working community all learns about the tree.

And there'll be times when they come out and there are 30 or 40 people lying down, taking a nap, sitting on the benches, having lunch.

It's a, it's a well-known destination.

And it's gotten more recognition just recently.

I think it's, it's a wonderful experience to come out and go out of your way to see this tree.

Many people come to this shopping center and never see it.

And then when they read about it and have it mentioned to them, they turn around, and they come out and they have to see it.

You know, who knows what this tree has heard over its 330 years and what it's seen.

Come on out and see this tree, it's just so great.

And uh you'll really enjoy the experience.

It's becoming a destination for people, and somehow it got on Wikipedia.

So somebody loves it as much as I do.

MICHAEL: Some of our newest invasive species were not discovered by scientists like me, they were discovered by average citizens.

People like you who saw something unusual outside and then reported it.

A call to action to get out in nature, observe, and when you see something you don't know, tell somebody about it.

A million eyes are much better than two eyes.

JOLI McCATHRAN: We're in Gaithersburg, Maryland, at a beautiful southern catalpa, which is the largest known in Montgomery County, second largest known in the state of Maryland.

For trees to remain in the Maryland program, as well as the national program they have to be remeasured every ten years to make sure they're alive, still growing.

Um, I want you to notice that this tree had a major limb that was extremely long, extremely beautiful, had a swing on it.

Um, we last measured this tree in 2018, and that limb was still there.

We're going to be measuring it again in 2028, um and that limb has now fallen and was taken off.

It broke during a storm, I believe.

And uh, so I expect that the spread is going to be reduced somewhat.

This limb was a tree in itself, on a tree almost.

It was enormous.

We do have a list of publicly accessible trees; it's listed on our website.

But we have one rule with that, and that is if you go out to see a champion tree, we want you to go up and touch the trunk, because that's when you can understand the magnificence of the tree and get a sense of the size of the tree.

GEARY: So, you might ask, why measure trees?

Well, first of all, big trees are awesome, and a lot of people are inspired by big trees.

They like being around them, like seeing them.

Trees that are, you know, 2, 3, 400 years old, they're kind of incredible to be around, really.

What Fred Besley found out and what the Forest Service, why they continued it, is it tends to give people, a little more appreciation for their trees, to learn more about them, learn how to take care of them, and why forests and trees matter.

NARRATOR: Whether you live in Garrett County or Worcester County, or anywhere in between, living with you are national, state and county champion trees.

Symbolic of nature's beauty and resilience, they are testaments to the fabric of life.

As they continue growing into greatness, we grow with them.

[Folk music]