Ousting the State Tree

We don't know if you've heard rumblings of this...I mean, most state news channels probably don't consider this breaking news or anything, but since we do trees we think it's pretty incredible, really.

Earlier this month, it was proposed that Utah change its state tree from the blue spruce to the quaking aspen.  Why, you ask?  That's a good question.  To be honest, I'd never heard of a state changing a state tree or a state anything else.

The reason for this change came when some fourth graders from Monroe Elementary School in Sevier County learned about the Pando clone located near Fish Lake in the Uintas.  Now, we get a lot of calls from homeowners complaining about how their aspens send up shoots all over their yard, but those have nothing on Pando.

Pando means "I spread" in Latin and was so named when it was discovered because scientists realized that hundreds of thousands of aspens were actually all part of the same root system (caused by the pando clone).  It's believed to be the largest living organism in the world and scientists believe it weighs nearly 13 million pounds!  It spreads over 106 acres and consists of an estimated 47,000 individual trees/stems. Talk about a big tree.

But the fourth graders didn't stop there.  Oh no, they had to throw in some serious figures.  The blue spruce accounts for less than 1% of the state's forest cover while the quaking aspen covers around 10% of the state.  It's also more ubiquitous than the blue spruce and can be found in many more areas.

So while it's been put to the Senate, these fourth graders have a pretty good chance of ousting the state tree and they have Governor Herbert and some pretty solid statistics to back them up.  Your children may be learning that their state has a completely different state tree than you did in when you were in grade school!