Why do you believe this tree should be selected as the winner in this category?

This amazing tree stands majestically, towering to about 200 feet, dwarfing all the evergreens surrounding it. This unique tree has the shape of an umbrella, with a trunk completely devoid of branches for about 30 feet rising in stately splendor to full foliage on top.

This tree has been admired and loved by my wife and I since 1968, the year we moved into our home. We are thankful that is survived the dreadful Dutch Elm disease which was the demise of numerous elms.

In the fall last year, we were sitting in our backyard when several trucks arrived in the park, bringing a dozen young men from the Forestry department, future aborists who were using the tree as a means of improving their skill in ascending trees with all the necessary equipment to assist them in the venture.

They kept us amused for a few hours. They were trying so hard to scale these ropes to the instructors had tethered to the branches. Some of them were hanging aroud metronome fashion, and after much time and effort (and with a little help from the cherry picker for the apprentices in the group) all men were positioned in various branches at various levels, all securely roped as the photo shows. This was a first for our tree. The descent as also a fun thing to observe.

Many a time we see people looking up at the tree, and gaze in awesome wonder. All I can say is “God Bless our Tree and Long Live our Amazing Tree”.