PARIS — Oxford County Soil & Water Conservation District has announced the results of the 2017 Oxford County Big Tree Contest.

The standings are:

• 34 of the 66 native tree species for Oxford County have been found;

• There are three sets of co-champions – American chestnut (There are three chestnuts within 10 points of each other.), red maple and yellow birch;

• Waterford is the new county leader with six champions;

• The County Champ with the most points overall is still a silver maple located in Fryeburg, with a total of 405.13 points;

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• The County Champ with the least number of points is a common juniper with a total of 12 points. The total points are determined by a forester who measures circumference (in inches) plus height (in feet) plus 1/4 of crown spread;

• Oxford County has nine state champions: American basswood, American sycamore, black oak, Eastern red cedar, Northern red oak, silver maple, striped maple, swamp white oak and white ash;

• There are presently seven nominees for state champion: Eastern cottonwood, Eastern hemlock, Eastern hophornbeam, Eastern white pine, Northern white cedar, pitch pine and white spruce.

There are still 32 species to find. Some to look for this year are trembling aspen (poplar), American beech, gray birch, Hawthorn (thorn-apple), American mountain ash (roundwood), balsam poplar (sometimes called Balm of Gilead and made famous in the Norway area by the writings of C.A. Stephens) and staghorn sumac. There are photos of all of the trees online to help with identification.

This can become a summer project to do as a family or start a competition among friends. Owners of champion trees receive a certificate and nominators of winning trees receive T-shirts and copies of “Forest Trees of Maine, Centennial Edition 1908-2008.”

FMI: 207-744-3119, oxfordcountyswcd@gmail.com.

This elm tree has earned the distiction as Oxford County’s biggest American elm. The tree is locatted at the Upper Dam in Richardson Township and is owned by Union Water Power Company.


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