Our Ten BiggestTrees

Big Sister at Sugarcreek MetroPark

The organization called American Forests just released their latest list of Champion trees, you can see it HERE.  A champion tree is determined by measuring it's diameter at breast height (dbh), crown spread, and height. These are combined to produce a numeric score for the tree.

Measuring a big tree is a lot of fun, and finding them is even more fun.  I've been measuring the biggest ones I know of in MetroParks facilities for a few years, and here is my list of the top 10 biggest trees:

Nickname	Common Name	Scientific Name	Facility	Total Points	LATLONG
Big Sister	White oak	Quercus alba	Sugarcreek MetroPark	378	84°5'9.567"W  39°37'0.234"N
Bea's Tree	Cottonwood	Populus deltoides	Englewood MetroPark	374	84°16'16.695"W  39°52'11.674"N
Elmer	American Elm	Ulmus americana	Shoup Mill Con. Area	365	84°12'56.555"W  39°48'53.825"N
Champion Oak	Shumard Oak	Quercus shumardii	Taylorsville MetroPark	357	84°9'39.952"W  39°52'16.526"N
Ralph's Oak	Shumard Oak	Quercus shumardii	Dull Woods Con. Area	350	84°27'9.957"W  39°51'30.955"N
Big Macrocarpa	Burr Oak	Quercus macrocarpa	Wegerzyn MetroPark	341	84°16'42.218"W  39°52'8.02"N
Soaring Sycamore	Sycamore	Platanus occidentalis	Sugarcreek MetroPark	324	84°5'48.108"W  39°37'23.107"N
Pedistel Oak	Burr Oak	Quercus macrocarpa	Wegerzyn MetroPark	319	84°12'21.479"W  39°47'58.234"N
Cloudbuster	White Ash	Fraxinus americana	Englewood MetroPark	317	84°17'46.377"W  39°52'41.482"N
Charlie Creek	Sycamore	Platanus occidentalis	Shiloh Woods Con. Area	316	84°15'9.981"W  39°50'52.641"N

      Sycamore

The biggest measured tree known in the MetroParks system is Big Sister at Sugarcreek MetroPark.  This leviathan scores 378 points.  By far the biggest of the "Three Sisters", 3 big white oaks at this site.  The middle sister died and fell over a few years ago.

Location of Tulip Tower

Tulip Tower

The tallest measured tree is a yellow poplar, or tuliptree dubbed "Tulip Tower" at Germantown MetroPark.  Located in the deep, fertile soils of Shimps Hollow, and protected from winds by the steep valley it is in, this tree has been measured several times to be 162 feet high!  It does not seem like a particularly impressive tree unless you walk up to it and look up.

If anyone knows of a tree that might be bigger than one of these let me know and we can go measure it.

600 trees planted at Shoup Mill Conservation Area

Some of the work crew on Saturday at Shoup Mill Conservation Area

On Saturday 600 trees were planted at the Shoup Mill Conservation Area along the Stillwater River.  Thanks to the outstanding leadership of the volunteer leaders it went smoothly and quickly.  These folks are amazing and very dedicated as are the "regular" volunteers who came.  This planting was one of many work sites for Adopt a Park Day.  Over 50 volunteers socked the trees in these trees in under 3 hours and installed the tree shelters.  The trees were planted in what was a cornfield on this recently purchased piece of land.  Trees planted were bur, white, swamp white, and red oaks, flowering dogwood, and American Elm.  The elms were raised from seed at Cox Arboretum, and came from 6 large elms in Montgomery County that do not show signs of Dutch Elm Disease.  One of the trees was "Elmer", the huge elm just south of the planting site.

I might as well tell the story of this Conservation Area, because it is interesting.  The Shoup Mill Conservation Area is 67 acres in size and is located along the Stillwater River in north Dayton and Harrison Township. This land used to be part of a recreational park for the employees of Frigidaire.  It featured a running track, ballfields and picnic grounds.  It was later sold to be developed as an industrial park.  .  However, restrictions were put on the portion of the land adjacent to the river that mandated that it be preserved as open space. It became a popular place to dump all manner of trash and junk for many years, and a haven for off-road trucks to churn up the mud.  In 1992 the Park District first approached the developer marketing the property about buying the river corridor.  We could not agree on the price for the property and nothing happened.  I called them every year after that and every year it was the same story.  Finally, in 2009, after 17 years, we agreed on a price.  An application was written to the Clean Ohio Program to cover 75% of the purchase price.  It also covered this percentage of the cost to remove honeysuckle, giant piles of trash and junk, and install an access lane.

Twin Creek MetroPark

Twin Creek MetroPark, and the view that convinced the Board to go for it.

Twin Creek MetroPark is just under 1000 acres, and is located in Montgomery and Warren Counties.  This beautiful natural area became a MetroPark in 1998.  I think the story of how it became a MetroPark is interesting and worth relating.

I suppose this story starts with a group of Native Americans that we modern Ohioans call the Hopewell Culture, or Hopewell Tradition.  We don't know what they called themselves.  The Hopewell peoples thrived in southwest Ohio and adjacent states from about 1,500 to 2,200 years ago.  They made their living by fishing, hunting, and growing of some crops.  They are best remembered for the mounds they constructed.  These often took the shape of long, low mounds now known as enclosures.  They were often built on the edges of steep slopes or ravines.  Because of this pioneers assumed they were for defensive purposes and called them forts.  In reality it appears they were for unknown ceremonial purposes.  Good examples of protected Hopewell enclosures in southwest Ohio include Fort Hill, Fort Ancient, and Fort Carlisle.  "Fort" Carlisle is located near Twin Creek near the Village of Carlisle.  A long, low mound winds along the edge of steep ravines and encloses about 10 acres.  It looks like there was likely more to this feature than is clearly visible today.  Using LIDAR technology appears to outline additional geometric figures.

Location of "Fort" Carlisle at Twin Creek MetroPark

It is largely because of Fort Carlisle that Twin Creek MetroPark took shape.  Most of these earthworks were on a privately owned 175-acre tract.  The owner wanted the mounds, forests, and natural beauty of his land preserved.  He contacted the Miami Conservancy District, and their Property Manager, Bob Riemmlin, arranged for the purchase in 1973.

In 1977 Dane Mutter, Assistant Director of the Dayton-Montgomery County Park District (now Five Rivers MetroParks) learned that a 44-acre piece of land that contained part of the earthworks was for sale.  Dane was (and is) a great naturalist and historian and wanted to protect the site.  He arranged for the purchase of the site to protect the earthworks. 

Large-Flowered Trillium are common at Twin Creek.  So far, a total of 554 species of vascular plants have been found 

These two contiguous pieces were a bit of a stepchild for both agencies until 1986.  At that time the Park District started leasing the MCD tract.  It needed some cleanup.  A tenant in the small house on the property had a passion to collect old semi-trucks and some thirty or so of them were in various stages of rust decomposition at the base of the ravines.  For the next several years the land was sort of a beautiful secret with no formal public access.   I  spent quite a bit of time exploring the "Fort Carlisle" area and came to realize that much of this beautiful area were not protected, and the site had great potential for a new Reserve.  Several additional parcels were acquired over the next few years, but to really do the job right we needed a bolder vision. The Park Board at the time was not very enthusiastic about taking on such a large new park, but the main problem was that they had never seen it.  Director Marvin Olinsky and Deputy Director Charlie Shoemaker arranged for the Board to visit the site for their annual Board tour of the parks.  Because the site was so remote and inaccessible, this was a challenge.  Charlie made arrangements to rent a large helicopter and take the Board to the heart of the area where a broad meadow overlooked the winding Twin Creek.  Commissioners Woodhull, Siebenthaler, and Leland stepped out into this beautiful spot and were convinced right away

The View from Skyview Shelter

   After that a plan had to be put together showing the land ownership of the area and a list of desired properties.  After this it came down to contacting the individual landowners to see if they were interested in selling.  I must say that this was an interesting experience.  Each owner had a completely different story and most of them are best described as colorful.  While wandering around the area (I hate to use the word trespassing) I came upon an impressive hilltop overlook.  It was in corn at the time, but it seemed to me that this would be a great addition to the new park if it could acquired.  After some negotiation it was purchased with the help of the Miami Conservancy District from the Weidle Corporation for a fair price in the spring of 1994.

In the fall of 1994 the Park District won a significant levy that expanded the scope of the agency to include protection of the beautiful river corridors along the Great Miami, Stillwater, and Mad Rivers as well as Wolf Creek and Twin Creek.  The agency changed its name to Five Rivers MetroParks in 1995 to reflect this commitment.

In 1996 the Boy Scouts decided to sell their large 250 acre Camp Hook on the south edge of MetroParks holdings.  The camp had a long tradition of providing formative experiences for young people, but the facilites were becoming obsolete.  A brief history of the camp can be found base HERE.  MetroParks purchased the camp from the Scouts in 1997.  Some components of the old camp have been retained and fixed up, but most of the obsolete infrastructure has been removed.  The site is open for camping and hiking,  and scouts still use and enjoy their old camp.  Anyway, in 1997  Twin Creek MetroPark had grown to 972 acres.

Much of this park feels like southeast Ohio with a series of ravines and mature forests

So, we had this big beautiful natural area.  But it was very hard to access and no one really knew about it or appreciated it.  One day I had a call from a MetroParks volunteer named Bob Johnson.  Bob was interested in doing some trail work and wanted to know if we had any projects.  When I threw out the idea of designing and installing a trail system for this new land base he jumped at the chance.  Bob had already designed the color-coded trail marking system in place at Germantown MetroPark and was anxious to try this at Twin Creek.  As at Germantown, Bob laid out a series of colored loops of various lengths.  With the help of staff, (particularly Assistant Park Manager Bob Slusser), and volunteers the new trail system was completed in 1998.

"Lake" George at former Camp Hook at Twin Creek MetroPark

After the installation of two small parking lots everything was ready to go, and in 1998 the new Twin Creek MetroPark was opened to the public.

1802: Survey of the Wilderness

Little Turtle cedes southwest Ohio to General Wayne at Treaty of Greenville

Let's begin a history of land use in southwest Ohio that created the conditions here now.  A good place to start would be 1802.  Southwest Ohio is still mostly a wilderness.  The revolution has been won.  It's been 7 years since the Treaty of Greenville that defeated the native americans and gave southwest Ohio to the United States.  Its been 17 years since the Continental Congress passed the Land Ordinance of 1785.  This legislation set up a system whereby the land of the "Northwest Territory", including southwest Ohio, would be surveyed and subsequently settled.

Depiction of early surveyors

In 1802, a rugged young surveyor named Israel Ludlow and his team set about to survey the forest wilderness of the Dayton area. Their task was to lay out a grid of townships 6 miles wide and 6 miles long. Each township was to be divided into 36 squares called sections. Each section contained 640 acres.  If a Section was divided into 4 pieces they were 160 acres and called quarter sections.  Using a compass and a long chain the survey crew would lay out the boundaries, called section lines, through the woods.  The chain was 66 feet long and contained 80 links.  When laid down 80 times a mile was traversed.  As they walked the section line the surveyors would make a note of each one describing the terrain.  when they had gone a mile it was time to mark the corner of the section.  To do this they marked forest trees with a hatchet.  They had to know the different kind of tree to distinguish each corner.  They also measured the trees diameter.  My doing this in a consistent manner they not only laid the land out for settlement, they made a pretty good record of the composition of the forest and the size of the trees.

Famous botanists including Paul Sears, Edgar Transeau, and Robert Gordon analyzed these surveyor records and produced maps of the "original" vegetation of Ohio.  In 1983 when I was a graduate student at Wright State University, my advisor, Dr. Jim Runkle, was analyzing some of these surveyor records to determine the pre-settlement condition of the outstanding woods at Wright State.  I was fascinated by these records and started studying them myself.  One thing that was interesting was the maps Ludlow made.  They had curious shapes drawn on them.  After matching the map with the notes it became clear that these were actually the boundaries of prairies and open wetlands that existed at the time.

beech-maple forest

Several years later Dr. Runkle and one of his students, Jodi Forester, analyzed the surveyor records in even greater detail, and made a GIS layer of the presettlement vegetation of the Dayton area.  They used the same classification system Robert Gordon did when looking at all of Ohio, but could zero in on more detail for our region.  Pre-settlement plant communities identified for our part of the world included:

oak-hickory forests, oak-maple forests, beech-maple forests, mesophytic forests, bottomland hardwood forests, elm-ash swamp forests, tallgrass prairies, wet prairies/fens, and hazel/plum shrublands.  Here is a map showing the distribution of these plant communties.

Medlar Conservation Area

Catherine Queener along Shepards Run at the Medlar Conservation Area

This 409+ acre natural area lies south of Miamisburg and east of the Great Miami River in Miami Township.  It is adjacent to over 200 acres of public open space owned by Miami Township, the City of Miamisburg, and Montgomery County.

This beautiful piece of land contains mature forest, planted prairies, wetlands, young forest, a scenic pond, and two small streams.  These native habitats are accentuated by varied topography from nearly flat to rolling to steep terrain.  A scenic hilltop vista in the western end is a highlight.

Wildlife observed here include deer, wild turkey, and a wide variety of smaller mammals, amphibians, and birds.

Much of the land was purchased with the help of the Clean Ohio Fund, a State bond issue approved by Ohio voters in 2000 and 2008.  In addition to buying the land, these funds paid for improvements to the land including removal of invasive Amur honeysuckle (from Asia), installation of an access lane, and the planting of trees.

Land acquisition started in 1975, when The Park District of Dayton-Montgomery County set out to make a large new reserve in this area that was to be called Crains Run Reserve.  A 73-acre piece was purchased on Medlar Rd. to start the new park.  Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons the Park District decided not to pursue a park here not long after this purchase.

Former farm of Gwen Rice, who donated a conservation easement on this land to MetroParks.  Her son and daughter -in-law sold the remaining interest to MetroParks in 2009.

This little piece of land was sort of an orphan for over 20 years.  Then, in 1994, the Park District decided to pursue Crains Run Reserve again, but on a somewhat smaller scale.  I was a voice for doing this because the region had a variety of outstanding qualities: mature forest, hills and ravines, remnants of the Miami-Erie canal, and opportunity in a growing part of Montgomery County.   In 1995 Mrs. Gwen Rice, owner of a 104-acre farm containing prime development land generously donated a conservation easement to the Park District.  In this same year the Park District of Dayton-Montgomery County changed its name to Five Rivers MetroParks.  Unfortunately, the partnership with other jurisdictions collapsed for a while, and the project was on the shelf again.

Serendipity struck starting in 2008-2010 when the land needed to complete a new land base came up for sale.  Also fortuitously, the Clean Ohio Fund was available, and I put together successful applications to this program with the help of a talented part-time employee named Marilyn Baumer.  Suddenly we had a land base that connected the new Austin Rd. interchange with the Great Miami River.  The new Conservation Area contains 5 areas of mature woods.  One of them, on the northern edge along Shepards Run is outstanding.

Dr. James Runkle of Wright Stat University at Bustillo Woods at Medlar Conservation Area

Seedlings in Tree Shelters

 In 2012 twenty thousand trees were planted into 10 abandoned farm fields in a project called the Shepard’s Run Reforestation Project.  This ambitious project’s goal is to restore this land to a healthy, diverse forest containing a wide variety of native trees and shrubs.  After planting, each tree was protected with a tree shelter.  This is a plastic tube that protects the tree from mice, rabbits, and deer until it is large enough to be on its own (most tree planting projects fail because animals eat them in their first few years).  After the trees are about 2 inches in diameter the shelters are removed.  This new forest (I hope) will link together two of the existing forested tracts and make for a larger forest block.

An interesting aspect of Medlar is the remnants of the Miami-Erie Canal.  The park contains a stone aquaduct (where the canal passed over Shepards Run, and a stretch of the original canal still intact.

MetroParks IT Manager, Tim Clark at the Shepards Run Aquaduct

Future plans for the Medlar Conservation Area are to maintain this large piece of natural land in this increasingly developed part of Montgomery County.  However, some improvements to allow public access are contemplated over time.  The main improvement is a paved path that would run from Miamisburg-Springboro Road to the existing bikeway on the Great Miami River.

American Elm Comeback

MetroParks volunteer Lindy McDonough peers from behind Elmer the giant American Elm at the Shoup Mill Conservation Area.

Many people know the story of the loss of the American Elms.  These stately trees preferred (and prefer) floodplains and moist sites.  As they got larger they took on a distinctive vase shape with large curving branches.  They could grow to immense sizes and made excellent street trees.  For that reason they were planted widely in the midwest and east in cities and towns.

Starting in 1928, three species of microfungi were introduced to North America from imported elm logs.  The fungi, called Dutch Elm Disease, was spread by bark beetles.  American elms had no resistance to the disease and died throughout the cities, towns, and forests of America through the 1960's.

Many people think that was the end of elms and they have gone the way of the Passenger Pigeon.  I am happy to report that this is not the case.  American Elms are still a common tree in the forests of the MetroParks and southwest Ohio.  Increasingly I am seeing large specimens that seem to be thriving.  Young trees and seedlings are very common.  The Dutch Elm Disease is still around and every summer one can find dead and dying elms, but I think overall they are recovering.  A few years ago I easily found a dozen or so specimens 2-5 feet in diameter and completely healthy.  Last spring I collected their abundant small seeds and took them to Cox Arboretum.  There our tree grower extraordinaire, Meredith Cobb, germinated them and grew them to small seedlings.  These were "fostered" to people to take care of last summer.  This spring they were part of the plantings described earlier.  At least 3,000 elms were planted in the MetroParks to help replace the rapidly dying ash trees.  It is hoped that these trees have some resistance to Dutch Elm Disease.

MetroParks Consevation staff Steve Sherman, Bryan Dorsey, Matt Parker, and Rob Ligas planting  resistant American Elms at the Shoup Mill Conservation Area.

We may not know for many years if in fact they do.  However, some elms were discovered years ago in New England that are scientifically shown to resist Dutch Elm Disease.  Last fall MetroParks collaborated with the US Forest Service and planted 40 resistant elms in the Shoup Mill Conservation Area.  These scions are keeping "Elmer" the giant American Elm tree company in this newly protected area along the Stillwater River.  Elmer is one of the biggest American Elms in the State.

Seedling Saturdays Nearly Complete

The most recent Seedling Saturday was completed with a bang.  At Germantown MetroPark on March 31, 140 volunteers planted 1400 trees (with tree shelters installed) in just over 2 hours.  Most of the trees were bare root stock donated by the Lions Club.  Lions members from Germantown, Carlisle, Miamisburg, and Centerville turned out in force and did a super job!  The Lions Club also donated a great lunch for all the volunteers.  What a great day!

This planting contained white, red, and bur oak, flowering dogwood, eastern redbud, tulip poplar, pignut hickory, and American elm.  The planting compliments the magnificent old forest of Germantown MetroPark.  The new trees will widen this woods at its narrowest point and establish important species that are not reproducing well on their own.

A second planting of 500 trees went in at Wesleyan MetroPark along James McGee Blvd.  This young woods next to Adventure Central has many ash trees that are in the process of dying, and it is hoped the new trees will get a new canopy started.

Likely the final Seedling Saturday will be April 7 at Carriage Hill and Sugarcreek MetroParks.