Sharon apple tree in contention for state title

SHARON — A common apple tree (Malus pumila) found on the Sharon Land Trust’s Hamlin Preserve may be a state champion, according to measurements done on Wednesday, Oct. 2.

A small group assembled under the sprawling tree early in the afternoon, consisting of representatives from the Sharon Land Trust (SLT), foresters from the White Memorial Conservation Center in Litchfield, and local conservationist and noted photographer of trees Tom Zetterstrom. Zetterstrom identified the tree as a potential champion “about two months ago,” he said, and today the entourage gathered to take measurements to send to the Connecticut Notable Trees Committee at the Connecticut College Arboretum for official review.

The Connecticut Notable Trees Project was founded in 1985, working to catalogue and distribute information surrounding the state’s “largest and most historic trees,” per the group’s website. To be a state champion, a tree must accrue the most points on a scale that adds together the tree’s circumference measured 4.5 feet above ground, its height, and the spread of its canopy. Detailed measurement requirements can be found on the Project’s website, alongside a full list of the state’s current champions.

Mike Berry, forest manager at the White Memorial Conservation Center who performed the measurements alongside forester Jody Bronson, explained that recent changes in the Project’s rules might complicate this apple tree’s path to victory. The tree has several main stems, called leaders, splitting off just above ground level and growing as if they were their own trunks. Several years ago, Mike said, this wouldn’t have mattered, but now the rules categorize leaders growing from ground level as different trees. “If they take it as a whole tree,” Mike said, “then it is the record.”

At 48.5 feet tall, it is an impressive apple tree regardless of whether it claims the title. Berry and Bronson estimate it is 150-200 years old, and is in decent health, despite the brown, desiccated strands of invasive bittersweet that wrap the leaders and drape the canopy. These vines are dead – testimonial to the work Zetterstrom and other volunteers have done in the past two months trying to save the tree from suffocating under the vine. Piles of cut bittersweet lie under the apple’s broad canopy, some strands thicker than a forearm.

The Hamlin Preserve has a long history battling bittersweet, with the invasive having killed 174 cedars around the knoll where the apple tree stands. Zetterstrom and Sharon Land Trust executive director Carolyn Klocker credit the work of volunteers in saving two hundred additional trees on the preserve.

A state champion tree might help more trees like the Hamlin Preserve apple survive. Sharon is already home to a state champion tree – a Chinkapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii) – on SLT’s Mary Moore Preserve, just south of the Hamlin Preserve. Zetterstrom nominated the oak in 2015, when it was completely enshrouded in bittersweet. He and others immediately began treating it, and since then it hasn’t had any major issues with the invasive plant.

Klocker said that beyond saving the individual tree, having state champion trees brings attention to Sharon’s natural landscape and provides valuable opportunities for educating the public on the conservation efforts in the region. SLT co-vice president Roger Liddell was more poetic in his appraisal of the town’s giants: “Some of these trees could be saved as a recollection of what was.”

Two other trees were measured on the outing – a paper birch (Betula papyrifera) and American elm (Ulmus Americana) – and while they are not champions the group uniformly agreed they are exemplary delegates for their species. “Sharon has some big trees growing,” Zetterstrom said.