Eight New Atlanta Champion Trees Added in 2022
This year, we have added eight new “Grand” Champion Trees to the 2022 Trees Atlanta Champion Trees list! These eight are newly recognized with the highest points among its species.
Two top Champion Trees are in the Atlanta Botanical Garden: a Japanese Styrax (Styrax japonica) and a Golden Larch (Pseudolarix amablis). These species are generally new to being cataloged as they are not native, but they are also not an invasive species.
Brownwood Park is home to two new Champion Trees: a Blackgum (Nyssa sylvatica) and an American Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) down by the river creek path. Trees Atlanta hosts a monthly Forest Restoration project in Brownwood Park. Come volunteer with us on the first Saturday of the month to help restore the forest ecosystem of this great neighborhood park and visit these new Champs!
Two Champion Trees are at schools: there is a Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) at the Kittredge Magnet School and an Overcup Oak (Quercus lyrata) at Sagamore Hills Elementary, that students themselves helped to measure!
An Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum) at Riverwalk near Whittier Mill Park and a Boxelder (Acer negundo) in Ira B. Melton Park complete our new class of Grand Champion Trees added in 2022.
In total, 26 new trees entered this year’s Champion Trees list. These are highlighted in green in the PDF of the 2022 list.
Photo credits (above L-R): 2022 Champion Blackgum (Nyssa sylvatica) at Brownwood Park, Eli Dickerson; 2022 Champion Silver Maple, Eli Dickerson; Eli teaching students how to apply their math skills to measure Champion Trees, Trees Atlanta.
Each year, as part of our annual celebration events for Georgia Arbor Week, Trees Atlanta and our talented volunteers review, revisit, measure, and confirm the current rank of Champion Trees in the metro Atlanta area.
A Champion Tree is determined by key measurements, including its trunk circumference, height, and average spread of the crown. These measurements are used to calculate total points. Each species is ranked separately. The official state and national registery of Champion Trees are kept by American Forests, and here in metro Atlanta, Trees Atlanta maintains the local “Atlanta’s Champion Tree” list.
Champion Trees represent the strength and beauty of the canopy we work so tirelessly to preserve. To recognize them is to honor the landscape we help foster across the greater Atlanta area.
An archive of past years’ lists and an interative map of tree locations are also available on our Resources page. Think you might know a possible Champion Tree to add? Please submit your nominations online; nominations are reviewed prior to February of each year.
Special thanks to volunteer Eli Dickerson for his ever-lasting passion and stewardship of Atlanta’s Champion Trees!
This post was written by Frankie Deck, Former Trees Atlanta Volunteer Program Intern, for the weekly volunteer newsletter (issue 2/23/22) has been edited for reprint on the News blog. Image credit (below): A young Frankie, tree hugging taken by Jason Deck in 2013.
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Posted on: February 24, 2022
