THE NATIONAL REGISTER of BIG TREES 2000-01

American Forests, Spring, 2000 by Katie Byrne

(*.)Co-champion

(delta.)Naturalized

( .)Off 1998 Species without Champs list

County: Co.

National Forest: NF

National Monument: NM

National Pork: NP

Notional Recreation Area: NRA

National Wildlife Refuge: NWR

State Forest: SF

State Natural Area: SNA

State Pork: SP

State Recreation Area: SRA

Wilderness Area: WA

Wildlife Management Area: WMA

Frank Knight lives in a little town with a lot of big trees.

FRANK KNIGHT: Maine's Community Spark Plug

Yarmouth, Maine, population 8,500, is home to more than 10 percent of the 80 champions on Maine's state list and Knight knows them all like the back of his hand. That's because he discovered seven of them. Knight, 91, took a forestry course at the University of Maine in 1930 and has spent the rest of his life working with and around trees. Now, nearly 70 years after that forestry course, he spends his retirement hunting for big trees and protecting the few elms left in this town devastated by Dutch elm disease.

Knight's special project: the largest American elm in New England, affectionately dubbed "Herbie" by the woman who owns it. "Our towns were lined with beautiful elms before the 1960s and '70s," Knight says. "We lost so many that the few left--including this big "Herbie"--were so great, that we said we wanted to try and save it and the few others.

Herbie stands 110 feet tall with a 19-foot circumference and a 93-foot crown spread, for a total of 350 points. The tree, located next to a private residence and along the town's main street, probably would have died without Knight's persistence, says Seth Murder, formerly AMERICAN FORESTS' Maine big tree coordinator and the man charged with tracking the state's tree list, Indeed, Knight reports that he and his crew have cut Dutch elm disease from Herbie in 13 different years, sometimes mare than once a season.

"Frank is one of those community spark plugs that everybody turns to if they have questions or problems about their trees," Mercier says. "He's kind of a one-man show."

Trees have long held Knight's attention. He worked for Great Northern and Finch, Pruyn in New York's Adirondock region before the Great Depression. In 1937 he launched a pulpwood and lumber business that aided the war effort. Since 1956 he's been the town's appointed tree warden, a volunteer position.

Every year during May, June, and July--the months elms are mast susceptible to Dutch elm disease--Knight checks Herbie and the town's other remaining elms almost every day. That's no problem far Knight, who combines tracking the big tree and his other favorite activity, playing golf, to keep himself young.

"I've enjoyed everything I've done," he says. "It keeps me young, keeps me busy. The golf season just ended yesterday and I played 126 times. I kept track. I've never been any good. But it's just fun."

Though ha may be unlucky on the golf green, Knight has made lock with his green thumb. In addition to Herbie, Knight has discovered three state champion oaks, a Norway spruce, a catalpa, and others. He spends weekends and evenings looking for more champs. And since he became tree warden, he's planted hundreds af trees on public and private property to help restock the town's lost greenery. But perhaps his biggest public service has been preserving the town's biggest, most beloved tree.