State's tree bent, proud

200-year-old oak in Anne Arundel park defies damage, to be honored today

Under a measuring system developed in 1925 by Maryland's first state forester, Fred W. Beasley, the Wilmer Stone Oak was recently awarded 402 points, a number arrived at by factoring in the tree's circumference, height and crown width.

The tree's point total made it the state champion, 10 points ahead of its nearest competitor, and it would have been the national champion - a position held by a 427-pointer in Virginia - "had it not lost a part of its trunk," Leopold said.

Tree lovers in Maryland still remember with fondness the national champion Wye Oak, a 460-year-old behemoth in the Eastern Shore community of Wye Mills that crashed to the ground in 2002. Its destruction prompted widespread mourning, and its branches and trunk were later transformed into mementos, most notably a 300-pound desk for the office of Maryland's governor.

The Wye Oak's replacement as the state tree was to have been the almost flawlessly symmetrical Flora's Oak, which stood 107 feet high on a farm in Barnesville and was expected to outgrow the national champion in Virginia. But a powerful storm June 4 knocked it to the ground before it could be designated, dashing the hopes of its owner, Victor Pepe, who had named it after his sister, Flora, who is buried nearby.

Despite its slightly awkward appearance - especially noticeable from a road about half a mile to the east - the Wilmer Stone Oak might one day inspire similar devotion.

"From that angle, it looks like it's about to fall over," said Mark Garrity, Anne Arundel County's parks administrator. "But the experts who came to look at it say it'll be there for another 100 years."

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