Seeking the Remarkable Trees of Virginia: the search is on as the old Dominion hunts for 100 of its most notable trees.

There is a tree in Virginia that speaks to the first breath of freedom for slaves in that state. Called the Emancipation Oak and located on the grounds at Hampton University, the live oak (Quercus virginiana) marks the spot where the Emancipation Proclamation was first read to local slaves by African American educator Mary Peak. Booker T. Washington enjoyed studying under its branches when he attended what was then Hampton Institute.

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Many would say the Emancipation Oak is a remarkable tree--and they might be right. It is one of more than 600 trees nominated for that status during a statewide search.

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The Remarkable Trees Project was launched in 2005 by tree enthusiast and writer/photographer Nancy Ross Hugo and Jeff Kirwan, Extension specialist and forestry professor at Virginia Tech and AMERICAN FORESTS' Big Tree coordinator for Virginia. The goal is to involve the public in finding the state's most impressive trees in terms of size, beauty, age, uniqueness, historical significance, or importance to the community.

The final outcome: a website of all the nominated trees and a book that celebrates the top 100, photographed by Robert Llewellyn and due out in the spring of 2008. Along the way, Hugo and Kirwan want the public to enjoy an educational and historic process that celebrates community resources.

The project recalls the "Remarkable Trees" books of Thomas Pakenham, but on a local scale, celebrating the trees of a state that consistently reigns in the top five for national big tree champions on AMERICAN FORESTS' National Register of Big Trees. The Register is a list of the largest trees in the U.S. based on a formula that measures height, circumference, and crown spread. The Remarkable Trees of Virginia project is the brainchild of Hugo, who has long had a passion for trees and enlisted Kirwan and Llewellyn's help in bringing a book about the state's arboreal treasures to life.

Hugo solicits nominations from professional groups (individuals are encouraged to submit nominations as well), publicizes the program, and researches the trees and their backgrounds. She has been pleasantly surprised both by the outpouring of nominations and media interest in the project.

Nominating a tree for potential fame was easy. Along with their contact information, nominators were asked to submit a photo of the tree, its common or botanical name, the location, the property owner's name and address, and an explanation of why the tree should be considered a remarkable. Nominations are closed for the top 100 but you can still nominate trees for inclusion on the website. Make those nominations online at: www.cnr.vt.edu/4H/remarkabletree.

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Peruse the website, and you can see all the trees nominated thus far. Search for white oaks and you'll bring up more than 100, all with intriguing reasons why they should be considered remarkable. So many trees are being nominated that it is hard to remain up to date, Hugo says. "Every time I look, there are new nominations."

Website Potential

Collaborator Kirwan is excited by the website's potential for documenting the state's trees. Virginia is a careful recorder of these state treasures through its Big Tree Program (www.fw.vt.edu/4h/bigtree/index.htm), run jointly by Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources (Kirwan is the program's coordinator), Virginia Forestry Association, and the Virginia Department of Forestry. The program lists the state's largest trees and shows photographs of many of them on its website.

"If a tree is important to a community we want to know about it." Kirwan says.

Controversial Trees

One tree considered important to its community--and to the nation as a whole--is the national champion osage-orange, located in Charlotte County at Red Hill, the home of Revolutionary War patriot Patrick Henry. No one disputes the value of the massive Maclura pomiferia, but how it arrived at Red Hill has long been the subject of debate.

One story has the tree planted by Henry's daughter after his death, the cutting a gift from Lewis and Clark. The theory was apparently disproven recently when an dendrochronologist determined the tree predates Lewis and Clark, lending credence to the other theory: it was planted by Native Americans who valued the flexible wood for its value as hunting bows. It was Native Americans who gave the tree--native to the Mississippi Valley and not Virginia--its name: osage for the wood and orange because of the smell of the fruit after it sits in the sun.

Another subject of controvery on the list is the state and national champion American elm (Ulmus americana), which was nominated for that list in 1985 by the big tree hunting team of Byron Carmean and Gary Williamson. The controversy originated in Kansas, which didn't appreciate the Old Dominion taking the title from its only national champ. The state sent an expert to Virginia to verify the measurements, a controversy covered by the New York Times and mentioned on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show."

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The team of Carmean and Williamson have nominated numerous trees for the Remarkable Trees project. Carmean has nominated 10 himself, including two--a redcedar and a red maple--that have grown together and appear to be one tree.

Also nominated: two southern magnolias (Magnolia grandiflora) in Farmville. They came from cuttings sent to the town by a local man, Robert Evans, who was working as a White House gardener under President William McKinley. Evans was the son of William D. Evans, a Reconstruction legislator, and a relative of state senator J.W.D. Bland. The two trees that remain from those cuttings are on the campus of Longwood College along historic Griffin Boulevard, where Robert R. Moton High School is also located. African American students at Robert R. Moton staged a strike in 1951 that led to the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision of 1954.

Which trees will make the final cut to be photographed for the book? No one knows at this point. Hugo insists they're all remarkable, but the project is "looking for a hundred of the most charismatic and interesting trees" to feature. She compares it to choosing a freshman class at an Ivy League college. "There are so many trees and they are all qualified," she laments.

The book will contain valuable information on the trees' habits and habitats as well as a photo of each. Hugo expects photographer Llewellyn "to do for trees what Ansel Adams did for landscapes. Trees are very hard to capture, but Robert has an eye for it."

Those images, Hugo hopes, will inspire readers to see the trees in their natural settings. "The best thing for people to do is enjoy these trees outdoors, not just look at them in a picture book because they have a presence that you don't see in a picture."

That presence, she believes, is key to the project's merit. "The project is about the trees, but it also shows what people value," Hugo says. "It is providing people a way to share what they know about these trees and their history. Every piece of Virginia is found in the trees--its history and its stories."

Margo Dawley is program coordinator for AMERICAN FORESTS.

PHOTOS BY ROBERT LLEWELLYN