Champion status - Letters - Letter to the Editor

American Forests, Autumn, 2003 by Bob Zahner

Deborah Gangloff: I am glad to see Gary Moll's "Trees, Environment, and Genes" (Summer), which hopefully will clarify for lay readers that a tree doesn't become a champion through its inheritance, as claimed by the imitation neochampion tree groups that have sprung up over the past 10 years. My experience is that champion trees are mostly of average genotypes that happen to be growing in locations favorable for huge crowns to develop over long periods of time. Big crowns and old age translate into large boles from whence come most of the points.

Bob Zahner, Coordinator

Arizona Register of Big Trees

Tucson, Arizona