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Towers Above Controversy
by Mike Thomas, Columnist
Orlando Sentinel, Sunday, June 10, 2001
LONGWOOD, Florida—The Senator evokes many feelings for those who come to pay homage.
Some think of him standing there when Jesus walked the Earth.
Some imagine Seminole Indians climbing him to survey the countryside.
Some wonder how he somehow was spared when so many of his brothers fell to the ax in the development of Central Florida.
As for me, I think of mulch. We could mulch every yard in Orange County with The Senator and have enough stump left over for a dozen tables and 100 clocks.
Of course, this is whimsy. I would do no such thing, not to The Senator, not to the greatest cypress tree that has ever lived.
See for yourself at Big Tree Park in Seminole County. Everything else comes and goes in this town, but not The Senator, which took up roots here about 3,000 years ago.
is larger New Orleans Times-Picayune Editorial Thursday, August 2, 2001 These are tough times in the Sunshine State. Having created chaos in the last presidential election and unleashed a bunch of cheesy boy bands upon the world, the people of Florida have been reduced to picking on an innocent Louisiana tree.
The American Forests Association has long recognized Old Cat, a 1,500-year-old baldcypress in Cat Island Swamp, as the largest of its species in the United States. There's no evidence of a larger baldcypress anywhere else in the world.
But some Floridians dispute Old Cat's claim to its title. The say The Senator, a baldcypress outside of Orlando, is larger.
They're wrong.
Sure, their Senator stands 118 feet tall, while our Old Cat is only 83 feet tall. But, appropriately enough, our baldcypress is much fatter; it's 53 feet around, compared with the Senator's 35. Old Cat's canopy is much larger, too.
Arborist Jeff "The Tree Guy" Meyer will referee the issue for a PBS documentary. He should be careful, because The Senator's spin machine is fierce.
A sign erected in front of The Senator in 1951 claims the tree is 126 feet tall and 47 feet around. Unless the tree shrank substantially over time, it's clear that Floridians have been lying about the tree for half a century.
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OK, I promise, no more tree puns. Because this is not a laughing matter. I am here to correct a travesty in the corrupt world of arborvitae.
The Senator, far and away, is the biggest cypress tree in the country. But because of a technicality in the rules on how trees are measured, a wanna-be bald cypress in south Louisiana has held the title of National Champion for almost 20 years.
The titles are bequeathed by American Forests, the organization of record for big trees.
The group uses a point system for determining its champions. It is based on measuring the circumference of the tree 4.5 feet up from the ground, the height of the tree, and the canopy spread. But the formula is biased, awarding the most points for circumference.
So, while The Senator is much bigger than the Louisiana tree, the Louisiana tree wins because it has, in layman's language, a fat butt. By the American Forests' calculations, Dennis "the Fat Guy" Salvagio would be considered bigger than Shaquille O'Neal.
"It's stupid," said Daniel Ward, a retired professor of botany at the University of Florida. "I got information on the Louisiana tree. It's a big turnip. It's fat at the bottom but tapers off. The volume of the trunk does not nearly match The Senator."
That's because The Senator's trunk is uniformly thick the entire length of the tree.
"It's shaped like a Titan missile," said South Florida urban forester Terry Mock. "It starts out fat and stays fat."
The Senator also is 33 feet taller than the Louisiana tree. It would be at least 66 feet taller but a lightning bolt knocked off the top of The Senator several decades ago.
Add on to that, the Louisiana tree doesn't even have a name, so I have to keep calling it the Louisiana tree. The Senator was named after former state Sen. Moses O. Overstreet. Despite all this, however, the people in Louisiana will not concede their tree is a hollow champion.
"Apparently, point-wise, your tree must be smaller than ours over here," said Brian Chandler, a forester at Louisiana State University. "We don't worry about volume. The point system is the national rule."
I should mention here that Louisiana has an inferiority complex about Florida. After getting pasted by the Gators for the past 10 years, LSU resorted to hiring a Yankee coach to revive its football program. Louisiana also only has five national champion trees. Florida has 187 national champions.
"That's because you got all that weird stuff," Chandler said. "It may only be 4-feet tall, but nobody else can grow it."
Actually, he is right.
"We have all these ratty tropical trees in the Keys," Ward said. "They're the size of broomsticks, but they're the biggest of their kind in the United States." And while vines are not an official category, Ward says we also have the champion poison ivy, in Jackson County. "Big as your thigh," he said.
And one day we will have the champion cypress. Florida foresters say there is a clause in the American Forests rules that says in cases of controversy, volume can be used to determine the true champion. Foresters have measured The Senator and determined it contains 3,781 cubic feet of wood.
"The catch is you have to measure both trees," Ward said. "Until someone measures their tree, it's considered bigger. You can see the bio-politics involved here."
Obviously we can't count on the people in Louisiana to measure their loser tree because they know how dinky it is. It seems we will have to send a contingent of Floridians to measure the tree if we want justice.
"You may not come back alive," Ward said. "You don't want to mess with people in Louisiana."
"I've seen bigger trees in the same swamp," says Louisiana wildlife artist Murrell Butler.
Chandler, from LSU, said he has never heard of the "volume" clause. "If you think you can change the rules, then go ahead and try," he said.
It turns out, we can. The American Forests executive director, Deborah Gangloff, said the group used volume measurements to resolve a past dispute between two giant redwoods, Gen. Sherman and Gen. Grant. Gen. Grant had a bigger butt, but Gen. Sherman turned out to be the bigger tree.
"Absolutely, we would accept it," Gangloff said. "As you can see, people take their trees very seriously. We had threats to cut down each other's trees."
American Forests spokesman Steve Westcott brings up the possibility of a compromise. "There is nothing to say we can't have co-champions if someone feels strongly about it," he said.
© 2001, Knight-Ridder Inc.