Famous Trees of Texas State Parks

From majestic oaks to towering cypress, our state parks contain many remarkable trees. Three of them have risen to such a level of historical importance that they have been included on the Texas A&M Forest Service’s Famous Trees of Texas Registry. Get to know a few of the state park system’s most famous trees and see what makes them special.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation has partnered with TPWD to celebrate 100 years of Texas State Parks. H-E-B, the presenting sponsor of the Centennial Celebration, donated $1 million to help Texas State Parks engage all Texans in discovering and exploring their parks. For more information: tpwd.texas.gov...
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[@martyrobbinsfan7930]

Good morning texas!

[@burtflaxton]

When you tear up about a tree.

[@finewine3702]

This is a much improved revised transcript, thank you😃. Beautiful, majestic trees such as these are awe-inspiring.

[@dominicmatthews8286]

Very cool. I thought I was the only one that loves trees!

[@christophercale]

What a great video! I've visited 2 of those trees and now I need to go see Old Baldy now that I know that it's so close to home! Thanks for posting!

[@carlwest859]

Now I'm compelled to wander around my plantation and see what the biggest tree is, for now. Enjoyed this video.

[@robinbradbery6075]

Awesome job!

[@alejandrohernandez7340]

What a great documentary! Thank you TPW

[@MD.ImNoScientician]

@texasparksandwildlife Has the state recognized the cedar/juniper die-off recently? I live near Centerville Tx and have noticed so many dead/dying cedars. Thank you for your response

[@texasparksandwildlife]

There are multiple reasons why cedars and junipers are under stress, such as insects and fungi, but it's the increasing prevalence of extreme weather events that's making them more susceptible to those different stressors tfsweb.tamu.edu/content/article.aspx?id=33430

[@MD.ImNoScientician]

@@texasparksandwildlife Thank you kindly. I appreciate your channel, and The TPWD weekly show.

[@MD.ImNoScientician]

Another comment I just thought about.... How many cell phones have we each bought, 4, 6, 7, 10? Well, How many trees have you each bought, planted, or cultivated? Think about that a while. Then, get outside and plant a tree. 🌴🍁🪴🌲

[@F.Ronnie]

Awesome video. Thanks.

[@lorettarussell3235]

Have any seeds or seedlings from those 3 trees been planted anywhere in suitable environmental conditions? If not then they should be & promoted as such. What a legacy that would to say this tree is a direct decendent of...... an to promote it as such. It would be great to have a larger family of these trees scattered about.

[@texasparksandwildlife]

That's a good question. We've reached out to those three state parks to ask them about it.

[@texasparksandwildlife]

According to our Natural Resources Coordinator for the region, throughout all of our sites, we always make an effort to maintain genetic integrity and local ecotypes. This means that when we plant trees, we’re sourcing those trees from as-local of nurseries as possible. In some special cases, however, we actually harvest seed from our on-site trees to grow-out and plant in our on-site projects. This ensures that our we aren’t introducing plants to our sites which have even slight genetic variations due to local adaptations. We view this as an important way to preserve the genetic portfolio of floral communities on our sites.

[@texasparksandwildlife]

To their knowledge, we haven’t specifically targeted seed or plant materials from those specific famous trees. But as we harvest and propagate the seeds of other trees of the same species as those famous trees, we are propagating the same genetics for the native trees of that species. The individuality of the tree is less important than their shared gene pool. But, they did say it would be a good idea to collect seed from those famous trees for propagation in future projects. Regardless, the genetic heritage of these famous trees is being preserved and propagated nonetheless, just not necessarily from those particular trees.

[@texasparksandwildlife]

Good news! We got another response from another one of our Natural Resources Coordinators and apparently there are seedlings from Goose Island's Big Tree scattered about. They said about 40 of them were planted several years ago at Goose Island, and others throughout the area. They also said there may be one at the LBJ Wildflower Center.

[@NelloCambelli]

There are tremendous Famous Forests which delivered over many generations wood and wood fiber for buildings, gardens and paper. These forests, especially, like in Huntsville State Park, in East Texas (generally east of I-45) ought be recognized as Famous Trees of Texas. BTW some of those trees became Battleship Texas’ decks and trees harvested from Kingwood in 1926 became the largest wood barn in the United States located now at the Prairie Museum in Colby, KS.

[@samuelcortez5539]

I. Thiny I have the biggest broken tree in Texas