VIRGINIA
TECH FORESTRY DEPARTMENT UPDATES
VIRGINIA BIG TREE DATABASE
BLACKSBURG,
July 28, 2003 - Virginia's Big
Tree Program has an updated database,
thanks to Virginia Tech's Department
of Forestry. In the past, the
big tree database was a table
of the most common species of
champion trees. The new database
allows users to search under different
conditions a vast library of 500
to 1,000 champion trees.
Champion
trees can be found through various
searches such as common name,
Latin name, and county. An advanced
search helps anyone to search
nominators, height, or if the
tree is still alive and standing.
"Through this new method of searching
we found 16 national champion
tree contenders with ease" says
Jeff Kirwan, associate forestry
professor at Virginia Tech and
one of the developers of the Virginia
Big Tree Program.
Kirwan
hopes the new big tree database
will help people to re-measure
trees and check that they are
still standing in order to keep
the Virginia Big Tree Program
updated accurately. The Virginia
Big Tree Program website is at
www.fw.vt.edu/4h/bigtree.
A click on Virginia Big Tree list
begins the search.
