A New State Champion
From the Summer 2026 Issue
Pine Street Woods is home to a record-setter
The recent discovery of a champion aspen tree in Pine Street Woods has stirred interest in Bonner County’s big trees. Not only is a newly crowned champion aspen right here among us, but several other championship trees are in our county as well.
Becoming a championship tree in Idaho doesn’t mean just growing tall. Championship trees need to have significant crowns and trunks too. For the state’s official Big Tree Program, a moderately complex formula generates a point score that considers the tree’s height, the circumference of its trunk, and its crown size. The tree with the most points is considered the state champion.
Students were responsible for the discovery of the aspen’s championship height. Photo by Regan Plumb.
Kaniksu Land Trust discovered our amazing aspen several years ago, when their forestry committee was first cruising the newly purchased property that would become Pine Street Woods. But despite its size, the tree stayed under the radar until last spring, when visiting grade schoolers were practicing their outdoor skills. Using an innovative approach that involves facing away from the tree, bending over and looking back up at the tree between their knees, they estimated the tree’s height with remarkable accuracy. The measurement was later formalized by older students from Sandpoint High School’s forestry class, who measured the tree somewhat more conventionally under the supervision of consulting forester Bill Love, and concluded that the height was 97 feet.
An aspen tree at Pine Street Woods was discovered to be the biggest in the state. Photo by Regan Plumb.
Realizing that our aspen’s height and score were clearly better than those of the current titlist—an 87-foot aspen in Blaine County—KLT submitted an application to the Idaho Big Tree Program last spring, Our aspen is not only 10 feet taller than that one, but our tree’s circumference of 128 inches handily beats that one at only 74 inches.
A black cottonwood on Gooby Road – springing up 91 feet from a multi-limbed trunk – is also a state champion. Staff photo.
Meanwhile, Bonner County’s other champion trees are thus far uncontested. Two are in the same yard—at 105 Gooby just north of town. The black cottonwood there was 91 feet tall when it was certified as champion in 1991, and the 75-foot paper birch received its accolade the same year. The cottonwood was already large when the Gooby family moved into the house over 80 years ago, and it has supported treehouses and recreational tree climbers over many decades.
This paper birch tree on Gooby Road, which shares a yard with the cottonwood, was 75 feet tall in 1991, when it entered the record books as the biggest in the state. Staff photo.
Three other trees in Bonner County are state champions: a 71-foot red alder on the Sandpoint Ranger District, a 91-foot butternut in Bottle Bay and a 104-foot subalpine larch at Roman Nose Lakes. And we have a co-champion Douglas maple that shares the title with a tree in Clearwater County.
For a day trip, other notable trees are nearby. The Roosevelt Grove of Ancient Cedars in Nordman, Idaho (head west to Priest River, then north almost to the Canadian border) holds trees estimated to range from 800-year-old ‘young pups’ to 2,000-plus-year-old granddaddies, measuring up to 12 feet in diameter and 150 feet tall. As a bonus, a one-mile trail leads you to view points where you can see both Lower and Upper Granite Falls. Another half mile beyond is the upper cedar grove. It’s about a 60-mile drive from Sandpoint to Nordman.
Or go east, young man! almost to Noxon, Montana and then north, almost to Libby, where you’ll find the Ross Creek Cedars. (You can also get there by going north to Bonners Ferry, then east to just past Libby. Both routes are gorgeous, so why not make a loop?) The cedars there are relative youngsters compared to Roosevelt, clocking in at a mere 1,000 years old, more or less. There’s an accessible loop trail through the trees, and a lot of informative signage along the way.
Admirers will find our champion aspen in the kids’ camp area of Pine Street Woods, and they might be on the lookout for a celebration of its champion status this spring.
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