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About Us
Who We Are
About the Pennsylvania Forestry Association & Pennsylvania Big Tree Program
For 140 years, the Pennsylvania Forestry Association (PFA) has been bringing people together around one shared belief: Penn’s Woods are worth knowing, protecting, and passing on.
Founded in 1886, PFA is one of Pennsylvania’s oldest conservation organizations. From the earliest efforts to restore Pennsylvania’s forests to today’s work with woodland owners, forestry professionals, educators, conservation partners, and communities, PFA has helped generations of Pennsylvanians better understand, appreciate, and care for the forests that define our Commonwealth.
One of the most visible—and inspiring—ways we celebrate that forest heritage is through the Pennsylvania Big Tree Program.
The Big Tree Program searches for, measures, documents, and recognizes Pennsylvania’s largest trees. These remarkable trees are more than record holders. They are living landmarks, connecting us to Pennsylvania’s forests, communities, landscapes, and history.
But the Big Tree Program doesn't happen on its own.
It is a volunteer-powered program, built and sustained by tree enthusiasts just like you.
Across Pennsylvania, volunteers nominate trees, take measurements, verify records, share their knowledge, help maintain the program, and inspire others to start looking at the trees around them a little differently. The continued success of the program depends upon people who believe these remarkable trees—and the stories they tell—are worth discovering and preserving.
There is a place for everyone in that effort.
Give your time. Share your talent. Make a financial contribution. Nominate a tree. Tell someone about the program.
Every contribution helps keep the Pennsylvania Big Tree Program growing for the next generation.
And you don't have to be a forester or tree expert to be part of it. Pennsylvania's next champion tree could be growing in a forest, along a country road, in a community park—or right in your own backyard.
So keep looking up. Keep exploring. And consider becoming part of the community that keeps Pennsylvania's biggest trees—and their stories—alive.
Big trees need people who care about them. People like you.
Get Involved
Want to get involved with the PA Big Tree Program? There are a few ways to do that.
- Report a tree! Using the simple measuring technique on this website you can measure and submit a big tree you know. Use the reporting form and nominate your tree! If its big enough for its species, it may make it onto the list.
- VOLUNTEER! If you'd like to be a trained Big Tree Program Volunteer, send us an e-mail at pfabigtrees@paforestry.org to express your interest! You may need to make a small investment in some tools to get started. We can use all the help we can get!
- DONATE to our parent organization, the Pennsylvania Forestry Association (PFA) to help support this program and all of the other great work that the PFA does: Pennsylvania Forestry Association
Copyright
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