Hunting Wilmer Stone

Hunting Wilmer Stone's Oak... (MD)	Matthew Hannum
	Jul 16, 2006 13:47 PDT

The weather today was hazy, hot, and humid, but I had enough time to go
hunting for Wilmer Stone's Oak, one of the largest white oaks in
Maryland.

Here are the stats on the tree taken from the ENTS website:

Wilmer Stone Oak. White oak. Maryland champion, 2002, succeeding the Wye
Oak. Named for former owner, Wilmer Theodore Stone, educator and
graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the Biltmore School of
Forestry.

Measurement by state 2002: CBH 20’ 1”, ht. 127’, spr. 96’,
pts. 392.0.

CBH 2002 by Fedor & Rucker: 20’ 9.5”. County recreation
park, Jones Station Road, Arnold, Anne Arundel County.

ref.: “Towering Oak” The Evening Capital, Annapolis, 7/26/1973. (photo)
ref.: “Arnold Tree May Succeed Wye Oak.” The Capital,” Annapolis
6/20/2002. article & photo.
ref.: “How Big is Arnold Tree?” The Capital, Annapolis, 7/14/2002.
article & photo.

Comments: This massive heavy-limbed tree stands in a very fertile
woodland swale. A large section was blown out about 1988, reducing the
spread of the tree.

Anyway, I arrived at the park in the afternoon; it consists of three
baseball fields with a screen of trees between them and around the
edges, so it is in no way a "nature park" - clearly, this oak tree most
have been left to stand almost by accident when the park was created. I
asked one of the salesman at the ice cream vendor stand if he knew of
the oak and where it was located. He knew of the tree (shocking, I know)
and directed me to the area near the left edge of the main baseball
field (the near one on the right-hand side of the entrance).
Unfortunately, a game was in progress and still had a long way to go, so
there was no easy way to get to the far left end of the field.

I went around behind the fences that surrounded the baseball diamond and
started to look around in the woods. The small ruins of what was once
perhaps a nice woodland were in very bad shape. There were still some
nice-sized trees - big white oaks of reasonable girth and impressive
height - and these trees had all the characteristics of forest-grown
trees (at least until humanity came along...) Other, smaller trees
included some beech trees, black locust, a bit of maple, and at least
one walnut tree (a few broken nuts lay on the forest floor). It was, in
truth, a sad sight, and I am sure the tiny little chunk of woods will
eventually fade away. The big white oaks will be the last of their kind
there, at least until humanity moves out of the area.

As for the Wilmer Stone Oak itself, I don't think that I found it, and I
really don't know where it is hiding. There were about 3 tall white oaks
that caught my eye: one right up at the woodland edge, one farther away
from homeplate and a bit back into the woods, and one near the far left
end of the field and much deeper into the woods. These three white oaks
certainly seemed to be the tallest trees in the area, and they were of
good height and pretty good girth. Unfortunately, the few paths in the
woods were not at all maintained and were overgrown with all sorts of
vines and other plants. Worse, there didn't appear to be any way to the
last tree on the list, which may have been the biggest of all three.
After looking around the area for a while, I left in disgust since I
didn't want to crawl through poison ivy, there seemed to be no path into
the woods (save for sliding down a crumbling slope into vines), and the
baseball game prevent any more exploration (I didn't want to get in the
way of the game hunting for a tree - sounds like a good way to be taken
to the nuthouse!)

I really don't know what to say: maybe the tree is still there, maybe
not. Either way, unless it was one of the three I saw (and I doubt that
since none of them seemed to be 6-feet in diameter and the tree was
measured to have a 20-foot CBH), it must be very well hidden, and access
to it is not an easy walk in the woods, so to speak. There is no sign,
path, or anything else to mark the tree, at least nothing that I saw;
one would think of tree of this size would command some respect and
appreciation, but I guess not. Again, perhaps I missed something, but I
don't think I did... still, I am certainly no expert tree-hunter.

So, I guess I leave this mystery to other ENTS who may live in the area:
where is this huge oak tree hiding?

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