Looking For  Newtown’s Largest Living Sugar Maple

Newtown Forest Association, Inc (NFA) has renewed the tree search contest it ran successfully several years ago. The contest involves finding and identifying the largest living tree of a specific species common in our area.

This year NFA has chosen the sugar maple as its tree of choice.

The New England sugar maple (Acher saccharum) is both ornamental and useful as a source of timber (for bowling pins, bowling alleys, and butcher blocks), maple syrup, and pollen and nectar for honeybees. It is the largest American maple, and can reach 30 to 37 meters tall.

The leaves are deciduous, 8 to 15 centimeters long, and change into spectacular, bright yellow and red-orange colors in fall.

Sugar maples also flower in spring, and have bulbous seeds about seven to ten millimeters long, with wings that are two to three centimeters long.

The sugar maple is a hardwood native to the Northeastern United States, and is one of the signature trees of New England.

The Newtown Forest Association invites all Newtown residents and organizations to enter the 2006 Largest Sugar Maple Tree Contest. A cash prize of $250 will be awarded to the first person who has officially reported the location of Newtown’s largest living sugar maple tree.

Entry forms are available online at NewtownForestAssociation.org/TreeContest2006. To enter, complete the form and mail it to Newtown Forest Association, Inc., PO Box 213, Newtown CT 06470, or e-mail it to NFATreeContest@NewtownForestAssociation.org.

All entries must be received by August 15. Trees must be located in Newtown, and all contestants must have the owner’s permission before entering private land.

For additional information check NFA’s website or send an email to the addresses above, or call 270-3650.