About Tree Treasures of Lancaster County
Three trillion trees grace our planet and Lancaster County has more than its fair share.
Indeed, we’re fortunate to live at a middling latitude with a moderate climate that supports a greater diversity of trees than could survive in, say, Maine. Adding to the diversity of our native trees, scores of species from Europe and Asia can and do live in Lancaster County as well.
We shouldn’t take this richness for granted. Pennsylvania’s 28 million acres were at one time
almost entirely forested but by 1900, after decades of unchecked logging, only a few hundred acres of old growth trees remained. Our state was then, as one observer put it, “a landscape of stumps and ashes.” Thankfully that’s not the case anymore, and 60% of Pennsylvania’s land once again is mantled with trees.
This website, by recognizing those trees in Lancaster County that are in some sense “special,” is meant in a small way as a tribute to all trees in our county, our state, our world.
Featured Tree Categories
Lancaster County’s special trees are separated into 11 categories (a single tree might fall in more than one category). These are the top 3 featured tree categories:
Age
In that the tree is at least 150-200 years old, or at least old for its species if the species is generally short-lived;
Size
In that the tree is one of the largest of its species either in Pennsylvania (a state champion perhaps) or in Lancaster County;…
Beauty
While every tree is beautiful in its own way, some trees or groups of trees have special stand-out attractiveness;