New red maple champion in Caldwell
- By Jeff Zeringue / Forests & People
- Sep 25
- 2 min read
It isn’t unusual for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to perform work on private land at the owner’s request. What is unusual is finding a drummond red maple tree that is a state champion.
The maple is one of seven new champion trees this year.
Ronnie Myrick put in an application to the NRCS for conservation help on his land. That brought Resource Conservationist Brittney Wells and Soil Conservation Technician Ben Williams to the Caldwell Parish property in August 2024.
“I just happened to look through the woods and said, ‘That tree is unusual looking,’” Wells said. “The closer we got to it, the bigger it got.”
Wells said she was unsure about the exact species of the large tree, but was able to pull some lower hanging limbs and get some leaves to send to NRCS State Forester Rick Williams.
“I just couldn’t believe this is a maple tree in these woods,” she said.
Ronnie Myrick, the property’s owner for about eight years, said until the NRCS came to the property for the conservation program and found the tree he wouldn’t have known he had the largest drummond red maple in the state.
“I had never been back there before,” Myrick said. “There’s a lot of huge trees here.”
Rick Williams estimates the tree could be about 80 to 150 years old and looks healthy.
“That forest is not jam packed; there have been a couple of storms that knocked some trees down,” he said.
Past storms cleared out some trees in the vicinity, allowing more sunlight to get to the tree. The wet area also was left out of farm production — the adjacent land was farmed with row crops — lessening competition for the long-lived tree. The fact that only a few trees were affected by the storms meant there remained enough trees nearby, protecting that maple from the strong winds.
“It’s near a stream, just a little mature strip that was probably left because it was wetter,” Williams said.
If the tree is 80 years old, “then it was planted the year I was born,” quipped Myrick.
“If it’s a certain contribution to nature, I’m proud it’s there,” he said. “If it’s beneficial to forestry and the health of the forest in the big picture, yes, I’m proud of it.”
Other new species include a chinkapin oak in East Carroll Parish, pecan tree in Rapides Parish, and possum haw, shagbark hickory, sweetleaf (horsesugar) and water elm in Claiborne Parish.
