The Michigan Big Tree Hunt will honor this year's winners Monday in Livonia and outline rules then for the 1998 contest. Besides locating new big specimens, organizers say the hunt makes people see trees in a new light, illuminating the majesty of living things in our midst that may have been around since the Civil War or longer. Modeled after a citywide big-tree contest in Mt. Clemens, the Big Tree Hunt passes its winners along to independent big and champion tree registers in Michigan and the nation. Those championship lists tended to be the domain of botanists and arborists, so a number of tree-loving groups, from nonprofits to governments and industries, came up with the Big Tree Hunt about four years ago to boost grassroots involvement. Among the most avid hunters so far are students and retirees, according to Melinda Jones of the tree hunt committee, who is also president of Global ReLeaf of Michigan.
Hunters take the quest seriously.
One woman last year threw a party for her winning tree. Sometimes just getting the measurement requires creativity. At least two verifiers have used Labrador retrievers to measure the girth of trees growing on river banks. In one case, a tree verifier tied the measurement rope to a stick and tossed it into the River Raisin. Trees with the potential to be state champs are forwarded to Elwood Ehrle, president of the Michigan Botanical Club, which maintains the Michigan Big Tree Project.