Banker locates champion tree in Nebraska

Northwestern Financial Review, Nov 1-Nov 14, 2004

Bob Brandt, president of Countryside Bank, Unadilla, Neb., pays attention to his surroundings. By doing so, Brandt has boosted the Nebraska Forest Service Champion Tree program by identifying some of the state's largest trees, including the state's largest Osage Orange tree recently added to the champion registry.

The Champion Tree program was designed to promote public awareness of forest and tree resources in Nebraska by encouraging citizens to take some time to look at the trees around them. "Most people are so busy with other things, they don't look at trees," Brandt said. "You can walk into a bank and you know what a $50 bill is and you know what a computer is, but you walk by a tree every day of your life and you don't know the name of it."

Brandt learned the whereabouts of the Osage Orange, a non-native hedge tree, from a customer nearly five years ago. Last year he contacted the Forest Service to get it measured and almost couldn't find it. "We went into this pasture and all the hedge trees were cut down. We hunted for about 20 minutes, and then along a fringe there was a cluster of trees and there it was," he said.

The champion Osage Orange is located about four miles southeast of Table Rock. The tree's trunk measures 17 feet, 6 inches in circumference at the critical measuring point of 4 feet, 6 inches above the ground; it measures 57 feet high and its canopy spreads 76 feet. Brandt said he believes the tree to be approximately 125 years to 150 years old.

Brandt just finished nominating the largest Bur Oak in the state and has six or seven other specimens he plans to register. "I'm not sure you can call it a passion," Brandt said. "I'm just kind of interested in trees."