In the Waterloo region of Ontario, entries have closed for the Champion Tree Hunt. The 333 entries can be viewed at treehunt.ca where there’s also a map that shows the location of the trees.
The tree hunt was started in April by three local professional arbourists: Phil Dickie, Mike Hayes and Greg Templeman.
The purpose of the hunt was for people to learn how to identify trees and to take measurements of circumference, height and crown spread. One of the group’s goals was to raise awareness of the value of tree preservation so they also sought any details that might be available about the history of the tree. The tree hunt website provided a list of tree species with photos, and instructions for how people should measure the trees as part of their entries.
Once a tree was nominated, volunteers visited the tree to confirm the data for the tree. Winners of prizes will be awarded based on the largest tree within each species on Oct. 29 at the Huron Natural Area on Trillium Drive in Kitchener, Ont.
The provincial association for the horticultural industry, Landscape Ontario, assisted the regional group by hosting the website for the tree hunt. The 2011 regional tree hunt was inspired in part by a 1990 Great Tree Hunt organized by the Kitchener-Waterloo Field Naturalists in Waterloo Region to help find the largest trees and trees of special interest within the region.