Trimmed down silver maple may be largest of its kind in Davenport

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By Alma Gaul | Tuesday, November 7, 2006 1:13 AM CST | () comments

Larry Fisher/QUAD-CITY TIMES Brandon Reeves of Atkins Tree Service cuts sections of the trunk off one of the largest silver maple trees in Davenport, at the home of Joy Thompson, on Monday. The enormous tree had become unsound and had to be removed.

One of Davenport’s biggest silver maple trees was trimmed down to size on Monday when homeowner Joy Thompson hired a tree service to remove all the major limbs, leaving the trunk in place as a spring project.

The tree’s circumference measured about 20 feet, just 2 feet shy of the biggest silver maples registered in Iowa and Illinois, according to the “Big Tree” registries of each state.

That likely would put it in the running for one of the largest in Davenport, city arborist Keith Majors said, but because he doesn’t make a practice of measuring trees, he can’t say for sure.

As for height, Dave Atkins, owner of Atkins Tree Service, Davenport, said he used a 100-foot crane, and the top branches extended beyond that.

Thompson said she lost four huge limbs out of the tree in the nine years that she has lived at her McClellan Heights home and decided it wasn’t safe to leave the tree standing anymore. It’s her understanding that much of the trunk is decayed and hollow, beginning at the bottom where there is what she calls a “spy hole.” She also believes that the tree is actually two trees that grew together.

Atkins removed the limbs for about $800.

Thompson said members of her church are going to help her cut up the larger limbs into firewood, and she will bundle up the twigs and branches for the city to remove a few bundles at a time.

Estimates to cut and remove the entire tree ran as high as $4,800, Thompson said.

Alma Gaul can be contacted at (563) 383-2324 or agaul@qctimes.com.

Raw Video: Silver Maple

BIG TREES

American Forests and the Davey Tree Co. maintain a National Register of Big Trees.

The largest silver maple (acer saccarinium) in the country is found in Newberry, Mich. It is 115 feet tall and 28.9 feet in circumference.

In Iowa, the biggest is in Van Buren County, measuring 22 feet, 2 inches around and 84 feet tall.

In Illinois, there is a tie for biggest. A tree in Sangamon County is 22.3 feet around and 88 feet tall, and another in Macoupin County is 22.9 feet around and 81 feet tall.

For more information about the national register, visit http://www.americanforests.org/resources/bigtrees/

In Iowa, http://www.iowadnr.com/forestry/bigtree.html.

In Illinois, http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/sangamonmenard.