BENTONVILLE — Julius and Irene Russell have lived on their picturesque plot of land just south of Bentonville since 1979, but they share the property with two residents that have been there much longer.
The state’s largest slippery elm and black walnut trees tower over the Russells’ farmhouse on Scoggins Road, providing shade in the summer and dropping a bounty of walnuts in the fall.
Irene Russell said Julius, 89, used to spend all winter shelling the walnuts, turning his fingers a deep black in the process. His nephew, Roger Reid, said Julius Russell would bring over bags full of walnuts to share.
Julius Russell said he’s not sure how old the trees are, but he calls the elm “Methuselah.”
“The people we bought the place from said the trees were just as big when they bought it,” Russell said.
The trees are both listed as state champions by the Arkansas Forestry Commission, which keeps a list of the largest trees of each species in the state. Benton and Washington counties are home to 14 state champion trees, according to the commission’s website.
Eight of the champion trees are located in Bentonville, with the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art owning three of the trees and Compton Gardens home to two others. The other trees are at the Russell residence and at a private home on Northwest Seventh Street.
The three champions at Crystal Bridges are all easily visible from museum trails, said Cody George, a horticulturist for the museum. He said the trees are not yet marked as champions, but the museum plans to put out identifiers soon.
Kevin Hickie, a manager with the Forestry Commission in Fayetteville, said foresters measure nominated trees and use a point system called the “bigness index” to determine the largest tree. The index takes into account the circumference of the tree 4 feet above its base, the spread of the tree at its crown and the tree’s height.
Hickie said his office often receives phone calls nominating a large hackberry tree along the bike trail in Fayetteville. Foresters have been out to measure the tree, but it doesn’t beat out a hackberry in Newport measuring 20 feet around and 71 feet tall.
“We tell people, ‘Yes, it’s a big tree, but it’s not a champ’,” Hickie said.
Washington County is home to four state champion trees, one being a sugar maple at the Confederate Cemetery. Hickie said he and Scott Nobles, former local forester, were out measuring a nominated green ash tree at the Confederate Cemetery when Nobles spotted the sugar maple. The ash wasn’t a winner, but an impromptu measurement of the maple turned up a champion.
The commission places a stone plaque at the base of state champion trees that are in locations where the public might see them, like at the Confederate Cemetery. Tree owners and nominators also receive a certificate for the trees, Hickie said.
As with any other title, state champion trees can come and go quite quickly, Hickie said. Trees large enough to be champions tend to be old, which makes them more susceptible to diseases or damage from storms.
“The larger trees will collect more ice, and the weight eventually overcomes the capacity of the tree,” Hickie said.
AT A GLANCE
Arbor Day
National Arbor Day is the last Friday in April, but many states observe Arbor Day on different dates according to the best tree-planting times. Arkansas observes the holiday on the third Monday in March, but Bentonville Garden Club is celebrating Arbor Day today at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
Arbor Day has it roots in an 1885 migration of 23-year-old J. Sterling Morton with his bride, Caroline, from their home in the East to a claim in Nebraska. The young couple planted trees, shrubs and an apple orchard to remind them of home. Morton later proposed a day be set aside annually for tree planting in Nebraska. Other states passed similar resolutions, and the event became a national holiday.
Source: Staff Report
The ice storm that devastated trees around Northwest Arkansas in 2009 took out several state champions. A state champion hemlock tree in Madison County lost several points after the ice storm took out several of its branches, Hickie said.
He said the legend is that hemlock tree, which is not a native species to Arkansas, was brought to Madison County in a covered wagon by early settlers.
Julius Russell said his elm tree was severely affected by the ice storm as well.
“It sounded like bombs were going off when those limbs would fall,” he said.
A pignut hickory tree in Park Springs Park in Bentonville was a state champion tree until two years ago. The park contains an arboretum with trees well over 200 years old, said Gary Bray with the Benton County branch of the Cooperative Extension Service.
“That site is really special when it comes to trees,” he said.
For those interested in perhaps planting their own potential state champion trees, the Extension Service is teaming up with local garden clubs to offer a tree planting education class at the first Bentonville Farmers Market on April 28.