There could be a champion growing near you.
Now utilized nationwide, the Champion Tree Measurement Formula was developed by Fred Besley, Maryland’s first State Forester, who began keeping records of “notable trees” in Maryland in 1925. Joli McCathran, Champion Tree Coordinator for Montgomery County and Vice Chair of the Maryland Big-Tree Program, will explain what it takes to become a champion tree, where you might get to see a champion tree, and how this Maryland program spread nationwide.
A board member of the Maryland Forestry Foundation, Joli McCathran also serves as president of the Maryland Association of Forestry Boards and a member of American Foresters’ National Cadre of Tree Measurers. She is the Mayor Emeritus of the Town of Washington Grove, where she resides with her husband. Her hobbies include camping, sewing, canning produce, and playing with her grandsons.