Big Trees

Meet Geary Schwemmer, Carroll County’s new Big Trees Coordinator. 

This webpage is devoted to the Big and Beautiful trees of Carroll County.  For more information about the Maryland Big Tree Program, or to nominate a Carroll County for the Big Tree registry, visit the Maryland Big Tree Website at   https://www.mdbigtrees.info/.   (Hover cursor over images to read captions.)

Image of Geary Schwemmer

Visiting the big Yellow Poplar at Oregon Ridge Park, with wife Sharon, and pets Jett, Finch, and Fleuri.

At “work” on the State Champion Hinoki cypress at Springdale Preparatory School in New Windsor.

(For more about Geary, scroll down to the bottom of this page.)

Take a self-guided tour of the Big Trees of Carroll County! Download pdf at the bottom of page.

The big trees in Carroll CountyCarroll County has 61 trees listed with the Maryland Big Tree program, and more are being added all the time.  Carroll has 41 County Champions, five of which are State Champions, and one a National Champion. Who knows, maybe there is one on your property?

The Top Ten largest trees in Carroll County:

Carroll County’s Biggest (highest point score) – This silver Maple in Westminster, with 382 points:

Carroll County’s Tallest at 149 feet, a yellow-poplar in Finksburg:

Carroll County’s fattest (circumference-wise), at 293 inches, the National Champion black mulberry in Westminster: 

Carroll County’s tree with the largest crown spread, the white oak in Sykesville, has an average crown diameter of 135 feet.

Currently, there are 5 publicly accessible trees listed in the MD Big Tree registry. If you love the outdoors, you might find it enjoyable to find and visit all of them. Their exact locations, including GPS coordinates are provided on the registry at www.mdbigtrees.org. Below is a screen shot of the list, filtered for Carroll County trees and sorted by Street Address:

One can bring up the details on any tree listing by clicking on the expansion arrows in the first column with the BT-ID #.

Here are some notable new additions to the Carroll County Big Trees:

Happy owner of a big American sycamore in Westminster:

This baldcypress tree, located in Hampstead, is one of the country’s northernmost single specimens.

The largest known saucer magnolia in Maryland, recently “discovered” in Leister Park, Hampstead:

The happy owners of Carroll County’s largest known Eastern white pine also own the Carroll County champion white mulberry and Norway spruce.  The trees are located in Hampstead:

The happy owner(s) of the Carroll County Champion pin oak, in New Windsor:

About Geary Schwemmer:

After recently retiring, I took up volunteering with the local chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation, planting and maintaining American chestnut hybrids in their orchards. Through one of their newsletters, I followed a website link to the Maryland Big Tree program. 

I’ve always liked trees and travel, so I decided to seek out some of the nearby publicly accessible trees listed on the MD Big Tree Registry and I was immediately hooked. I started planning some of my leisure-time motorcycle rides and short hikes around big tree locations.  

Finding small errors in some registry data (like GPS coordinates and missing or deceased trees), I communicated these back to the MBT Committee Chair, John Bennett and Vice-chair, Joli McCathran.  When John and Jolie mentioned that help was needed in Carroll County, I stepped up and took the bait, hook, line and sinker. Shortly thereafter I was measuring trees under the tutelage of Joli.  I joined the Carroll County Forestry Board to get more involved with other aspects of this most valuable resource we call trees.    

It’s hard to pick just one favorite tree, but two of my current ones are both yellow poplars, the first one stands sentinel over the old gravesites next to the historic Friends Meeting House in Sandy Springs. The second one watches over the children’s playground, picnic, and swimming area at Oregon Ridge Park.