On a recent trip to Ogden, Utah State University Professor Mike Kuhns, who is also Utah’s Extension Forester, noticed an 85-foot English Walnut tree near downtown with a massive 100-foot canopy. He said its size surpasses the biggest English Walnut tree on record in Utah.
“A reporter from the Standard Examiner looked into older photos, like aerial photos of the neighborhood and she placed it somewhere between 1909 and 1950 maybe. And they are pretty fast-growing, so it easily could be as few as 50 years and maybe as old as a hundred years.”
While motivated initially by curiosity, he wondered if the tree might be threatened by potential development in Ogden.
”Actually, I think in terms of saving it I was figuring since it was there and the area had been graded recently, smoothed out and leveled, that somebody had already decided that they wanted the tree there. But, evidently that issue is still up in the air.”
Ogden City officials said they are aware of how rare the tree is but can’t make any promises about its future.