2 UP, 2 DOWN.

It was a rough summer to be a notable tree. AMERICAN FORESTS received updates on several trees known for their size or connection to history.

First, the country's largest known American elm is dying. That's the message from Virginia Tech tree expert R. Jay Stipes, Ph.D., who diagnosed it as suffering from Dutch elm disease.

"The disease is rampant throughout the tree," Stipes says. The professor of plant pathology says the tree could die within a year. Located in Grand Traverse County, Michigan, the elm has been listed on AMERICAN FORESTS' National Register of Big Trees since 1998 and will remain national champion until it either dies or a larger tree is found.

Another champ, the national co-champion smoketree at Perdue University, has been successfully moved to a new home on campus. The tree's future became uncertain when the university announced plans for a new performing arts center on its site. The champ took a flatbed truck ride in October to a nearby "long, vista lawn" which university officials say tree experts deemed a better site for the champ.

(Nomination forms for the 2002 Register are available from coordinator Jen Pietruski, at [e-mail], or 800/368-5748, ext. 231. Deadline: August 1, 2001. The Register is sponsored by the Davey Tree Expert Company.)

In New York, quick local action has saved the state champ butternut after Brittney Enterprises, Ltd. announced plans for a six-home development that would force the tree's removal.

After locals voiced opposition, the developer scaled back plans and will build five homes instead of six, allowing the tree to remain standing. Although not the largest of its kind in the U.S., the butternut is sizable at about 80 feet tall with a 16-foot circumference.

Finally, another historic tree has died of old age. The Appomattox honey-locust stood beside the historic Richmond-Lyncbburg Stage Road in the hamlet of Appomattox Court House, Virginia, when Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered on April 9, 1865, ending the Civil War. The tree was more than 180 years old.

The tree leaves hundreds of direct descendants at AMERICAN FORESTS Historic Tree nursery in Jacksonville, Florida. To order one or find out about other historic trees, call 800/320-TREE.