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Farewell to a Champ
One of the highlights of the Pre-Conference New Mexico Tour was to be the National Champion Quercus grisea (gray oak), measured by Ryan Russell and Michael Meléndrez during the 2017 IOS Tour of New Mexico. Sadly, nature had other plans: the oak succumbed to the Foster Fire, a wildfire that started on May 29, and burnt large swathes of Coronado National Forest in the Peloncillo Mountains.
On the 2017 Tour, Michael Meléndrez was leading the group to a champion Q. grisea in Hidalgo County, south of the town of Animas, New Mexico. It had first been measured by Michael and Guy Sternberg in 1996 and then again during the legendary 2001 Tour1 of the U.S. Southwest, when it was determined to be the National Champion.
In 2017, after some exploration, they found its remains: a charred stump, presumably a result of a lighting strike or a forest fire.
Michael hoped the group’s disappointment would be short lived, because he knew where several large trees existed that might qualify as a new champion and take on the mantle from the oak that was lost. He was leading the group down a dirt road towards them when Ryan Russell (who has an uncanny eye for seeing big trees) spotted the huge oak in a bottom along a dry stream. “I hollered at Michael to stop the truck,” Ryan recalls. “I bailed off into the head-high brush as Michael reminded me to watch out for rattlesnakes!” Ryan’s derring-do was rewarded by an encounter with a remarkable tree: “It had lots of unique character and measured 60 ft tall, 203 inches in circumference, and 72 ft spread, for a total of 281 points on American Forests’s scale.”
Michael duly reported the tree and its measurements to the National Register of Big Trees and its status as the National Champion Gray Oak was confirmed.
Anna Forester and Michael, tour leaders of the Pre-Conference New Mexico Tour, didn’t think twice about including the champ in the itinerary they drew up for the trip, convinced that the long detour it required into the boot heel of New Mexico would be more than compensated by the opportunity to admire the noble giant. When they learned of the Foster Fire, they feared the worst and in July decided to drive the more than 320 miles to the tree to make sure they would be able to show it to the Tour participants.
Their fears were confirmed: the fire had clearly engulfed the tree, and the massive, multi-stemmed trunk was now black rather than its eponymous gray, with pieces of burnt bark flaking off. Below the canopy, the scorched earth was covered in funereal ash, though around the tree beyond the drip line new vegetation had already started to grow back. A few desiccated leaves still clung to the seared branches.
Though participants registered for the Pre-Conference New Mexico Tour will naturally lament the demise of this champ, they can rest assured that Michael and Anna will find other worthwhile attractions to replace this one in their itinerary. Who knows? Perhaps, like in 2017, they will find a new National Champion to replace the one that fire took.
Photos © Michael Meléndrez unless specified
