Potential new national champion tree found

The picture to the right was taken a couple days ago by yours truly as we were measuring this large tree in the White River National Wildlife Refuge about an hour and a half from Monticello near St. Charles, AR. This unique species is a water tupelo (also called a "tupelo gum") and grows in some of the wettest sites possible (the large swollen base is one physiological response to growing in standing water most of the year). The drought we've had this year has lowered the water level in the old oxbow lake this tree is found in, making it possible for us to access it.

The gentleman standing near this tree for scale is Kirby Sneed, a forestry technician from our unit. As an aside, I will frequently use my darling wife Hope as a "scale bar" in these kind of pictures, as it helps people appreciate the size of these trees.

This water tupelo is just over 33 feet in circumference at chest height, and although not particularly tall, it shows all the signs of being quite ancient. This tree, and the other large tupelo and cypress around it, all were damaged by a windstorm many years ago, and had their tops broken out, thus limiting their height. Another unique feature of this tree is the fact that it is almost completely hollow, as you can see in the other picture attached to this posting.

This tree is a shoe-in as state champion for water tupelo, and will likely also be listed as a national co-champion tree (there are a couple water tupelos from Virginia about the same size).

In other news, we had a good if subdued 10th wedding anniversary on Thursday--Hope made a delicious salmon dinner with asparagus and garlic mashed potatoes. We had a more festive night last night, hosting a wine and cheese social last night to a small number of enthusiastic friends. Today I will be going to Pine Bluff with a friend to pick up building supplies to start remodeling Kenny's room, and we're picking up 2 racks of some of the best barbequed ribs on this planet for supper tonight...