A giant Engelmann spruce, which for five years was the champion big tree in Idaho, was toppled by a microburst or other type of severe windstorm in early June near Bloomington, Bear Lake County, Idaho.
Believed to be 250 or more years old and rising approximately 105 feet high, the spruce and hundreds of other trees were felled by the storm that swept over about 600 acres in Bloomington Canyon.Other spruce, aspen, sub alpine fir and lodgepole pine were also toppled in the canyon, located several miles northwest of Bloomington and Bear Lake.
The largest of the Engelmann spruce measured 72 inches in diameter at a point 4 1/2 feet off the ground, said Eric Mattson, a forestry technician with the Montpelier Ranger District, Caribou National Forest. He said he believes the storm occurred about June 3.
But the towering spruce, which in 1965 became the state champ among trees in the Gem State, died during a drought several years ago. Lightning or insect infestation likely damaged the tree, Mattson said.
Jerry Thompson of the Intermountain Regional Office of the U.S. Forest Service in Ogden said he understood that the toppled tree was the largest Engelmann spruce in Idaho at one time.
And Yvonne Carree, extension associate-forestry in the University of Idaho's College of Forestry, which manages that state's big tree program, confirmed that Wednesday.
She said the tree was surpassed in 1970 by a 179-foot-high Engelmann spruce on Payette Lake near McCall. "To this date it is still the national and state champion. That tree has a 24-foot circumference and is considered the largest Engelmann spruce in the United States," Carree said.
Mattson said the Engelmann spruce in Bloomington Canyon was unique for its size in southeastern Idaho.
In Utah, a towering Fremont cottonwood, located east of Smith Fieldhouse at Brigham Young University, is the largest tree in the Beehive State, according to the Utah Register of Big Trees. The register was last published in 1997, said Max Darrington, arborist at BYU.
In 1994 the tree's trunk measured 427 inches in circumference, more than 11 feet in diameter and was 101 feet high. It had a crown spread of 90 feet, said Michael Kuhns, state extension forester at Utah State University.
Darrington said there are presently five national champion trees in Utah. They are the Rocky Mountain white fir, located in Lofer Canyon south of Spanish Fork and Salem; a Rocky Mountain juniper, in Cache National Forest in Logan Canyon; a pringle manzanita, in Washington County; a limber pine, near Pittsburg Lake in the Uinta National Forest; and a blue spruce, in the Duchesne District of Ashley National Forest.
The Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands is interested in knowing about large and unusual trees. Division officials keep a register, he said, of historically important trees planted by the pioneers or others. Information may be mailed to the Division at 1594 W. North Temple, Suite 3520, Salt Lake City, UT 84114-5703. Tony Dietz is the division's urban forestry coordinator. The division phone number is 538-5555.