Nominate a special tree for national register

Nominate your favorite tree to a newly created national register that will showcase historically and culturally significant trees.

America’s Historic Tree Register also will spotlight trees that have played notable roles in an individual’s life, such as one planted by an ancestor.

A tree will be published in the register if its description qualifies for one of five categories and has supporting documents.

The five categories are trees:

Ÿ Associated with a historic or cultural event.

Ÿ Connected to famous people in history, culture, literature or art.

Ÿ Connected to a famous place.

Ÿ That are remarkably old.

Ÿ That are unusual in size, shape or growing range; remarkable for having survived difficulties; or significant in folklore.

Trees can be nominated on www.americanforests.org starting Saturday.

If a nominated tree does not qualify for the category, or cannot be authenticated, it will be listed as a “Personal Tree.”

The complete register will be published by American Forests in the fall.

The Nebraska Forest Service also has a registry of heritage and champion trees.

The two programs are separate, and trees listed at the Nebraska site won’t appear on American Forests’ register.

To be a champion tree, size matters. The program identifies and recognizes the largest living specimen of all native and most-common introduced species in Nebraska.

More than 80 species are listed on the Nebraska register. Two of the trees are national champions, a dwarf chinkapin oak in Salem and a scotch pine in Beatrice. An eastern cottonwood near Seward had been on the national champion list until wind damage caused its death in 2007.

The state’s heritage tree program, just four years old, recognizes trees with connections to a significant person, place or event. The Lone Tree is one such example, said Marilyn Heins of Central City, Neb.

Heins, who heads the heritage tree program, said the Lone Tree was a beacon to pioneers following the Platte River across Nebraska’s Plains. References note a giant cottonwood, known as the Lone Tree, as early as 1833. Travelers carving their initials in the tree probably hastened the tree’s death in 1863. A storm in 1865 brought it down.

In 1911, Merrick County residents erected a tree-stump-shaped stone marking where the Lone Tree stood and planted another cottonwood in its place. The town of Lone Tree later was renamed Central City.

The champion trees program is administered by the Nebraska Community Forestry Council, the Nebraska Forest Service and the University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension.

The public can visit the site and download nomination forms at http://nfs.unl.edu/championheritagetreeprogram.asp. Chip Murrow, assistant community forester, said he can help people interested in nominating a tree. He can be reached at his office in Lincoln, 402-472-1382 or jmurrow2@unl.edu.

Contact the writer:

444-1059, rhonda.stansberry@owh.com