It took arborist Nick LeCroy

a little over an hour to reach the top of Fayette County's largest pine

tree, but just seconds to determine that the tree doesn't quite measure

up in its quest to be named the largest in the state.

But it was close.

The massive loblolly's limbs

stretch out to create a 100-foot-wide canopy, and its girth is a whopping

14 feet, five inches. But previous attempts to measure its height from

the ground, using instruments, were thwarted by the dense growth around

it.

Passers by in the Timberlake

subdivision off Redwine Road, where the giant lives, may not even notice

it. It grows in a low spot at the base of the dam that creates the neighborhood

lake, only about half of its height visible to the casual observer.

It's in a good spot for a tree

right next to a boggy area that will never see construction, yet high

enough above the marsh that its roots can soak up all the water they want

without rotting in wet seasons. "I guess it's just been siphoning

up water all day long," said Steve Upchurch of the county Engineering

Department.

Upchurch noticed the big tree,

which has been well-known to locals for some time, on one of his inspection

trips to the subdivision, and decided to have it checked out to see if

it would meet the "champion tree" requirements of the state

Forestry Commission.

The commission determines champion

trees by adding the circumference in inches to the height in feet, then

adding one fourth of the crown. Using that formula, the current champion

loblolly, in Crawfordville, Ga., racks up 326 points. It's 123 feet tall,

15'2" (182 inches) around and has an 82-foot crown.

At 173 inches around and with

its 100-foot crown, the Fayette tree was definitely in the running. The

height would be the determining factor.

Upchurch contacted Arborguard

Tree Specialists, which sent LeCroy out for free as a public service.

LeCroy Thursday secured a rope

over a limb about 40 feet off the ground, attached his safety and climbing

gear, and began a laborious ascent. It would be a lot easier to make the

journey using spiked shoes and a climbing strap, but that might damage

the tree, he explained.

"The life line of the

tree is just under the bark," he said, "and it tends to get

marked up by the spikes."

He climbed to where the rope

was secured, then (secured by a safety line) untied the rope and made

a new pitch higher up, climbed to that spot and did it again.

Near enough to the top to estimate

the last few actually about 15 feet, LeCroy dropped a survey tape, and

Upchurch stretched the tape taut with its end just touching the ground

... 90 feet, plus the estimated 15, putting the tree at 105 feet. The

resulting 303-point ranking is 23 short of the Crawfordville pine, and

18 short of the second place tree at Fort Stewart, which has 321 points.

That's plenty big enough to

be entered into the Forestry Commission's database for future reference,

said Willard Fell, coordinator of the state's champion tree program. "We

try to check on the largest trees every two or three years," said

Fell. "Sometimes they topple, and if you have one waiting in the

wings, you can put it in ther e."