Southern Illinois Oaks   doug bidlack   Nov 15, 2006 20:17 PST  ENTS, I was in southern Illinois just last month to collect acorns from some of the state champion oaks. I was most interested in the bur, white and swamp white oaks, but I also had an interest in the willow oak as well. All of these state champions are in southern Illinois except the champion white oak. The white oak is up in Putnam county...a beautiful tree that my parents visited. I emailed Jay Hayek to see if any of the champs had changed recently and he indicated that there was a new swamp white oak champ. I wondered what had happened to the old champ that I visited in 2003, because I figured it might be larger if it were remeasured. It was last measured in 1984 and Jay said that his notes indicated that the top had been blown out of this tree...in 1983! Didn't make sense to me, so I had to go back to see if the tree was OK and at least get a cbh measurement. Well the old swamp white oak was just fine and I measured the cbh at 202" or 16" more than in 1984. This also pushed the point total to 312 or 4 more than the new champ...and that's without new height or spread measurements. I let Jay know what I found and he wrote that the notes about the blown out tree top actually referred to a different tree in Williamson county. The one I measured was in Crab Orchard Wildlife Refuge. Anyway, it could sure use new height and crown spread measurements. In fact, some poison ivy vines may have made my cbh measurement a bit high, so I wouldn't trust them too much. The vines had been cut near the base of the tree, but I didn't have much time to try and remove them. As for the bur oak champ in Lawrence county, well, unfortunately Earl Minderman (the property owner} told me that the huge tree had blown over in a storm last year. Maybe Jay knows the new champ, but I forgot to ask him about that. The willow oak at Fort Massac looks great and it produced plenty of acorns last month. I didn't measure this tree though. I hope those of you going to southern Illinois find this helpful. Good luck! Doug     RE: Southern Illinois Oaks   beth koebel   Nov 19, 2006 14:33 PST  Doug, Thank you Doug on your report on southern Illinois. I was in Washington, Clinton, and St. Clair counties this weekend. I found a hackberry in St. Clair county that is about 30 points from the state champ and is in a field by itself. It is just smaller all around than the state champ, but still has a impressive cbh of 17' 6". Beth   Home