Hello NTS family. It is with some sadness that I write to let you know that a Georgia state champion Oak has recently come down. It had a large (widening) split in the crown and coming down the trunk. I had previously identified it as Northern Red, though upon closer inspection I believe it may have been a Black Oak. Regardless, it is now dead. It was truly a beast at 20'1" cbh x 123.4' tall x 115' spread.
- Grand (young) oak
But the real reason I'm writing is to let you know just how young this tree was. It took 3 days to remove the giant crown and trunk of this tree. At the end of the 3rd day, all that remained was a 3 foot high stump that was big enough to serve as a stage for the homeowners kids to play on. I was able to locate a single defined pith and counted 88 rings from bark to pith. I figured I'd round up and call it 90 total. 90 years old and 20 FEET in circumference! Some of those rings were nearly 1" apart! This bad boy was putting on 4+ inches of girth per year in some years. The guesses of it's age were consistently around 150-170 by most folks (novices and experts alike). We all thought it was pre-Civil war, but no. Not even close!
So, once again the amazing growing ability of an open grown oak tree in a region with 50" rain/year is shown. And large size does NOT equal old age!
Oh and here' s a link to a YouTube video I took during the last stages of trunk removal:
http://youtu.be/ONdW9dVPy_E
~Eli
