The third European Champion Tree Forum (ECTF) will be held in Poland, at the famous Bialowieza Forest. The dates: June 14-16, 2013. If interested, write to me, and I will forward the program and the contact info of the organizers.

End-of-year summary:

In the year of 2012, 206 new trees made the lists. All together, 43 genera are represented by 1584 trees. Every year, roughly 200 new trees are discovered (about half of them simply grow up to reach the listed lower limit).

There are currently 427 trees with a girth over 6 m. Their distribution: 187 poplars, 87 oaks, 55 willows, 49 plane trees, 24 chestnuts, 11 lime trees, 5 sequioas, 3 ash trees, 2 beech trees, 1-1 maple, Sophora, Juglans, Corylus. It is anticipated that new poplars and willows will be the easiest to find in the coming years.

Ther are 5 single-trunk trees with a girth over 10 m: black poplar of Révfalu/Drávakeresztúr ~1066 cm (1065 cm/2011), lime of Ötvöskónyi ~1060 cm (1038 cm/2003), plane of Peresznye 1033 cm, plane of Pápa 1019 cm, black poplar of Barcs ~1010 cm (1006 cm/2010), black poplar of Vindornyalak 1010 cm.

A few conclusions, based on the data:

Growth rate of a tree depends on several factors, including the local climate and soil, or the age of the tree. However, based on the re-measuring of many trees, we can conclude that a large tree in relatively good health can increase in girth at the following rate:
chestnut 1-2 cm/year
beech 2-3 cm/year
oak 2-3 cm/year
poplar 5-9 cm/year
plane 5 cm/year
lime 2-4 cm/year
ash 4-5 cm/year
willow 5-9 cm/year
elm 2 cm/year

Under the Hungarian climatic conditions, the maximum girth (with rare exceptions) for our trees are:
oak 7,5 m
beech 6 m
plane >11 m
poplar 10,5 m
sequoia 7 m
hornbeam 5,5 m
chestnut 8,5 m
willow 9 m
ash 7 m
Remarkably, the plane trees show no signs of bad health, and even the largest ones grow at a high rate. I predict that by 2020, the largest, healthy tree will be the plane of Peresznye with a girth of ~1070 cm.

The most remarkable new finds in 2012 are: the black poplar of Vindornyalak (1010 cm, László Bognár), and a white willow in Gemenc (894 cm, Adrien Fekete and Gergely Szombathelyi).

There were two dendromaniac meetings:
In spring, Géza Vissi hosted the group in the county of Zala, showing many remarkable oaks. In the fall, Attila Jandala helped us to explore the beeches of a neglected, but beautifulé area in Nógrád county.

The 3rd Meeting of Dendromaniacs was held 2012. oct. 13-14 in the Karancs-Medves region. Thanks to the organizer and guide, Attila Jandala, 26 new trees made the lists. Photos in the photo gallery.

European Champion Tree Forum
Wespelaar Arboretum, Belgium, 23. Oct. 2010.

Program:
10h Arrival / coffee / introductions.
11h Forum, Part 1: Presentations of the activities of groups researching veteran and champion trees.
13h Buffet lunch.
13h 45 Forum, Part 2: Presentations of veteran and champion trees from several countries.
15h Forum, Part 3: "Where do we go from here" - an open discussion of what we have learnt about each others' groups, matters of common interest and ideas for future meetings (e.g. who would like to organise them ?).
15h 30 to 16h 30 Guided tour of the arboretum.

Speakers:
David Alderman to introduce the Tree Register - www.tree-register.org - its recording work in the UK and its extensive records.
Philippe de Spoelberch to present the Beltrees project - www.dendrologie.be/bdb.php?p=200 (in Dutch and French) - which he started in Belgium during the 1980s.
Aubrey Fennell to report on his recent "Heritage Trees of Ireland" project - www.treecouncil.ie/tree_register_of_ireland.htm
Lutz Krueger to tell us about studying and recording redwoods across Europe - http://projekt-mammutbaum.de (in German)
Reinhard Weidner to present the recent Champion Trees project - www.championtrees.de
Gyorgy Posfai to introduce the great trees of Hungary - www.dendromania.hu
Michel Brunner to share his photos of the finest trees in Switzerland - www.proarbore.com
Frank Moens and Jeroen Philippona to talk about Bomenstichting - www.bomenstichting.nl
plus – if time permits – more photographs of great trees presented by other participants.
We expect to meet in the Arboretum's new Visitor Centre at De Costerstraat 37. Tel.: + 32 (0) 16 60 86 41.

The English version of this webpage is now available. Some text of the Hungarian version ("Notes" section of the lists, subtitles of the Photo Galleries) has not been translated. Time permitting, I will upload the missing parts.

A new feature is that by clicking on a particular item in the lists, the individual data sheet of the tree will show up. I will gradually add photos to these data sheets.