1.5-minute read

We thought we’d start off this unusually unusual July with a celebration of something cool and comforting and lovely and leafy—trees—ahhh! We write about trees and plant trees and tend to trees because well, we’re tree people and because they’re the unsung green heroes of the planet. We believe in giving nature credit where credit is due, and so do our planting partners at American Forests, which is why since 1940, they’ve sponsored a national hunt to locate and crown the most colossal of America’s trees.

So if you’re looking for a perfect activity to help you keep your social distance during the dog days of summer, it’s officially tree-tracking season, time to hit the lonesome trails, and keep your eyes peeled for a massive marvel in your local field, forest or national park. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, and we hope that you will, is to locate, measure and nominate the largest tree you can find to American Forests’ National Register of Champion Trees. Learn how to propose a potential champion, then gather your tree’s photos, facts and figures and submit your awe-inspiring specimen for consideration beginning October 1, 2020. Not only will you be contributing to forest heritage, you’ll also be helping scientists learn more about how large, old-growth trees capture and store carbon and filter water.

If wandering in one of 419 U.S. national parks in pursuit of gargantuan trees is on your safely-able-to-do list, you can also share your unique photographic point of view in the federal recreation lands photo contest. Check out rules, recent snaps, and previous winners here.

And if you’d like to find out which trees were the 2020 favorites of our nature-loving friends in Europe, you can read the winning stories of the Guardian of the Flooded Village, the Gingko from Daruvar, and the Lonely Poplar at the aptly named European Tree of the Year.

To borrow from EU environmental expert Ladislav Miko, we celebrate trees and get to know their stories to learn why they are important for us as humans. Tree lovers and tree admirers create a good society of people.

We always knew being a citizen of nature would come in handy.