Tree Registries

Big trees are good for the planet, and for our health and wellbeing. A lot of cities, states, and nations are starting to take big trees seriously by registering and protecting them. Look at a few of the local and national registries that I found:

Registry or Site	Description
Oakland Big Tree Registry	Maintained by the City of Oakland (many cities maintain a tree registry) See the current list of Oakland’s big trees. See the Coast Redwood, and the Monterey Cypress: http://www2.oaklandnet.com/oakca1/groups/pwa/documents/webcontent/oak025516.pdf
California Register of Big Trees	Maintained by the Urban Forest Ecosystems Institute of CalPoly See the current list of California’s big trees, and search through the collection of 270 Big Tree listings and 153 National Champion listings:  https://californiabigtrees-test.calpoly.edu/
National Register of Champion Trees	See the current list of big trees found throughout the United States. For example, the champion spruce tree (Picea sitchensis) is found in Grays Harbor county, in Washington). https://www.americanforests.org/get-involved/americas-biggest-trees/champion-trees-national-register/
Archangel Ancient Tree Archive	This is both an archive of ancient tree clones, and a mission to propagate old-growth trees for reforestation. You can help. https://www.ancienttreearchive.org/
UNESCO World Heritage Sites	This is not a registry, but you can access the World Heritage List, and perform an advanced search using the theme “Forests”. Peruse the resulting sites. For example, select Madagascar, and The Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve; or the Olympic National Park in Washington statue in the United States. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list

Next time you’re in the mood for trees, whether in your local neighborhood or travelling, check out a big tree registry for a registered tree near you!

Special thanks to Barry Adams, Community Outreach Coordinator at Lawn Starter, for alerting me about outdated links. He also recommended this fascinating article, Reborn – Redwoods Cloned from Giant Stumps Live Again. The article mentions the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, a nonprofit organization that works to propagate the world’s most important old-growth trees before they vanish. I've added them to the list. Thank you, Barry!

--Margaret Quisenberry, 8/14/2021