Fayette County is home to at

least two specimens that are the largest of their kind in Georgia, and

may have a third as well.

Measurements completed on a

loblolly pine in the Timberlake subdivision last week knocked that tree

out of the running, but a white oak owned by George and Ellen Long on

Ga. Highway 92 north could go to the top of its class.

It's not the tallest. Three

white oaks currently listed as co-champions in the Georgia Forestry Commission's

champion tree program are 125 feet, 97 feet and 79 feet tall, respectively.

But height alone does not a

champion tree make. You take the height in feet and add the circumference

in inches. Then divide the crown the width from the ends of the longest

branches by four and add that number to the previous sum.

It is the circumference of

the Longs' tree that seems to put it over the top, so to speak. The tree

is 21.5 feet around, measured at breast height (four and a half feet off

the ground). That's 258 inches, compared to 239 inches for the thickest

of the competition, and that tree is the shortest of the bunch, at 79

feet.

An East Point specimen towers

at 125 feet, and its 122-foot crown dominates the landscape, but its 187-inch

circumference doesn't measure up.

The Longs' tree also has an

80-foot crown, giving it a score of 368 points, 66 more than the current

co-champions.

Fayette County's Engineering

Department has been working lately to identify the county's largest trees

as part of its efforts to strengthen the county tree protection ordinance.

"We're trying to make

the timbering operations a little more compatible with the county's norms,"

said Ron Salmons, county engineer. "There is a great deal of interest

in trees here," he said, adding that his office has received numerous

complaints about timbering operations and clear-cutting for construction.

Steve Upchurch, an inspector

for the Engineering Department, is friends with Nick LeCroy, an arborist

for Arborguard Tree Specialists, and found out about the Longs' tree through

him. As part of his work, LeCroy regularly measures trees in concert with

Park Pride, an Atlanta nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting green

space in the Atlanta area.

LeCroy submitted the Longs'

white oak to Park Pride's annual Big Tree Search, but it didn't meet the

group's criteria. The Forestry Commission, however, uses a different formula

that gives more weight to circumference. He is waiting for a nomination

form for that program, LeCroy said.

Fayette already has two champion

trees on the books:

A black maple owned by David

Warner on Hwy. 92 south stands at 88 feet in height, with a 145-inch circumference

and a 66-foot crown;

Sandra Milavic's Japanese pagoda

tree is listed at 40 feet tall, with 44-foot crown and 77-inch circumference,

a giant among its species.

If you have a tree, or know

of one, that's big for its kind and you think it might be a champion,

check out the Forestry Commission's Web site at https://www.gfc.state.ga.us .

Click on the "Forestry Management" page, then on "Champion

Trees" for a list of current champions.

If your measurements rival

those of the champion, there's an application on the site that can be

downloaded, or phone the commission at (800)428-7337.

"We'll get the information

back and then come out and check it out for ourselves," said Willard

Fell, coordinator of the program.