The program relies on volunteers to search for, nominate, and verify the measurements of big trees in Virginia. When a big tree is reported to the program, it is put onto the Virginia Big Tree Registry, an official list maintained jointly by the Virginia Forestry Association, the Virginia Department of Forestry, and Virginia Tech's College of Natural Resources. The largest of each species appears on the big tree list.

"Most of Virginia's current champion trees were nominated in the 1970s and have not been verified in years," says Kirwan. In 2002, a survey was conducted, and it estimated that 38 percent of those trees are now dead. The survey also showed many landowners are not aware that they have a champion tree on their property. Directions to trees are so poor that 25 percent simply could not be found.

Big trees are a community treasure. Champion winners can be viewed at the Big Tree Program website at http://www.fw.vt.edu/4h/bigtree/index.htm