THE NATIONAL REGISTER of BIG TREES 2000-01

American Forests, Spring, 2000 by Katie Byrne

He nominated his first big tree in 1963, but the tree bug had bitten long before that. He remembers cycling round Montgomery County, Indiana, as a boy, measuring trees and recording the numbers in a little notebook, which he still has. Armed with a Ph.D. in botany, he served on the faculty of the University of Florida for 37 years, which gave him a chance to indulge his love for big trees.

As he says, people con "do their hobby and call it research; brag about it and call it teaching."

In addition to Big Trees, Ward coauthored a book on endangered biota in the late 1970s. Although Ward's tangible contribution runs to the technical--things like nomencloture and species ID--rather than to tours or garden club talks, he inspires by the strength of what he has accomplished, by his teaching of students, and by the enthusiasm he exudes as he talks about identifying trees, the people who've helped him with measurements, and the important contribution a Register can make to conservation efforts.

Although Word will never lose his connection with big trees, at 71 he mentions pulling back a little, freeing himself up to mark on other projects. But in the next breath he's anticipating aloud the virgin forest and spectacular cabbage palm a caller has invited him to see. And people are always writing and calling with trees that need measuring. He always feels the pull of obligation to check them out, write a note.

Learning that you hove a record-size tree (even if it's not the biggest) can be a source of enormous pride, he says. The tree "becomes important--you put a fence around it ... you put a provision in your deed that the tree ... and the area around it must be protected."

Record-sized trees are a given in the South, which is known far its lush trees of unusual size and shape. Word's favorites are the surviving mammoth boldcypresses because when he looks at the trees once prized by loggers, "I'm seeing a vanished past" that was inadvertently missed or left because of same perceived defect.

Would-be tree hunters, of course, need to arm themselves with a clinometer, a tape measure, and either a knowledge of what species are out there and a sense of the size af the champion or an expert who can help you hunt. There's one other thing that tops Ward's equipment list: "bug spray. I'm assuming you want to enjoy yourself."

Michelle Robbins