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MyDavey Bulletin - May/June 2014

The Davey Tree Expert Company provides residential and commercial tree service and landscape service throughout North America. Read our Flipbooks for helpful tips and information on proper tree and lawn care.

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May/June 2014 | 35 Every Tree Tells a Story Long Live the Limber Pine O ne tough tree has developed outstanding features in harsh conditions, living well into the existence of several generations to share its story. Although the national champion limber pine—typically a small to medium tree—isn't Utah's only national champion tree, it has retained the title for more than 40 years. It stands tall within the Uinta National Forest. The limber pine's unique characteristics distinguish it among Utah's seven other national champion trees, which all vary in species, size and shape. The limber pine's thin, smooth bark, for example, twists and turns around the trunk as it reaches high in the sky, approaching a height more than 20 feet taller than the average tree of its species. W. Crawford, T. Dietz and T.A. Walker nominated Utah's national champion limber pine for American Forests' National Register of Big Trees in 1968. The tree measures 275 inches around, 62 feet high and 47 feet across. Native to higher elevations in Utah and the interior West, the limber pine grows slowly as it thrives on dry, harsh sites; in fact, the species inhabits some of the driest sites where trees can grow. Although the limber pine does not tolerate shade, a wider range of elevations satisfy the tree more than any other tree species in the central Rocky Mountains. Because the limber pine can exceed 1,000 years in age, it takes several hundred years to mature, most often rooted along exposed, rocky mountainsides in dry, open environments; rigidity depicted through nature. But the tree's frequent, flexible branches —even twigs as wide as ½-inch in diameter— suggest otherwise. With every twist and bend in the canopy, the trunk further distorts itself to demonstrate the very limberness for the tree's namesake.

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