A pecan tree (Carya illinoinensis) that might have been planted well before the American Revolution and is located right in the circle of the Ladies Village Improvement Society, has been recognized by the State Department of Environmental Conservation as a state champion, the tallest of its kind in New York.
It was nominated by Vicki Bustamante, a Montauk resident who has been a horticulturalist for over 40 years. A three-member team from the D.E.C. measured it at 110 feet high with a circumference of 117.4 inches.
“I’m obsessed with trees,” said Ms. Bustamante, who noticed the tree a couple of years ago when walking from the Reutershan parking lot to the L.V.I.S. building off Main Street in East Hampton Village. “I passed this big tree and thought, what the heck is that?” She looked on the ground for leaves to help identify it. She first thought it was a hickory, but soon realized it was not one of the three or four species that commonly grow here.
When she found a pecan, the mystery was solved.
“I knew it was a monster tree,” Ms. Bustamante said. “It’s a beautiful, glorious tree. Bigger than the elms.”
Pecan trees, she said, are not native to New York State. The new champion was likely planted by Continental Army soldiers who lived at the L.V.I.S. building at that time. In a release, the society estimated that the tree could be 280 years old.
Ms. Bustamante noted that it is impossible to know the exact age of a tree without cutting it down and counting its rings, or “coring” it — something that will not be happening. (An estimate is derived by measuring a tree’s diameter, and, depending on the species, multiplying that number by a factor determined by the International Society of Arboriculture.
It is rare for champion trees to be found on Long Island, Ms. Bustamante said, because of wind shear, salt spray, and species limitations. “Everything is bigger and grander upstate!” That said, there is another potential state champion in the Sagg Swamp Preserve in Sagaponack, an Atlantic White Cedar.
Ms. Bustamante also believes she has found a champion poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) tree in Montauk. “It’s way bigger than the current champion,” she said. “The team from the D.E.C. who came out to measure it had never even seen one before. We got two champion trees for Suffolk County just this year! There was only one in our region before.”
A foundry is making a commemorative tree marker for the pecan, said Russell Kratoville, executive director of the L.V.I.S. It is expected to be ready in the coming weeks.
