Washington is Home to Some of the Nation's Largest Trees

By Junius Rochester

Some years ago a fledgling organization called the Washington State Big Tree Program published its findings. Unsurprisingly, Washington held preeminence for a fair share of our nation’s largest trees.

I have hiked trails and byways of our state, some of which have lead to enormous vertical behemoths, often with signs identifying them as the “biggest” of its kind. For example, the nation’s largest Sitka Spruce near Lake Quinault.

About 15 years ago The New York Times noted that the search for the nation’s biggest trees continues and is ongoing today. The American Forestry Association in Washington, D.C. keeps those records. For example: the General Sherman Sequoia in Sequoia National Park, California may still be the all-round “National Champion.”

Although rain-soaked Western Washington boasts the most impressive collection of tall trees, other regions are in the running. One example to my surprise is a national champion Northern Catalpa once nestled on the parking strip in front of my old fraternity house in Walla Walla (removed as dangerous). Others: a champion White Cedar rose from the nearby Mt. View Cemetery; an Austrian Black Pine was listed in Walla Walla’s Odd Fellows Home yard; the city’s centrally located Pioneer Park (where I once raked leaves to earn money for college) boasts a superior American elm. The nearby Whitman College campus boasts giant hackberry, black locust, silver maple, bur oak, and a Tree of Heaven.

https://www.postalley.org/2024/12/20/washington-is-home-to-some-of-the-nations-largest-trees/