OHIO — Ohio is home to more than a dozen national champion trees. Marc DeWerth is responsible for finding and identifying several of those. He founded Big Trees Ohio, a volunteer group of big tree lovers that search and seek out Ohio's biggest and most grand trees.

DeWerth spends most of his free time searching forests, farms, fields, and even residential neighborhoods for the largest trees in the state. Alistair Reynolds with the Ohio Department of Forestry is also passionate about locating and documenting large trees.

When measuring, each tree “gets a point for every inch and circumference, a point for every foot in height and a quarter of a point on the average crown spread,” said Reynolds. ODNR also offers a guide, How to Measure Big Trees.

Once a tree is measured and identified, it’s marked on GPS and entered into a state database of big trees.

“We have 15 national champions in Ohio and Mark submitted four or five of those,” said Reynolds.

DeWerth said his goal with Big Trees Ohio is to encourage the appreciation of large trees.

“A tree needs to be noticed. We need more trees like this and we need people to appreciate them more. And I just wish our developers would not just totally clear cut everything down to nothing, you know, just to fit more houses in.”

A complete list of Ohio’s champion trees can be found here.

For more information on big tree hunting, Big Trees Ohio is on Facebook and Instagram.