Tree huggers might find themselves having a hard time wrapping their arms around a few barked specimens that stand out in Santa Cruz County.

This gargantuan Fremont cottonwood was nominated in 1970 after a forester from the Nogales District spotted it from the highway on his way to work. "It is really breathtaking with a cactus growing out of one side," said Ken Morrow.

Consider a 200-year-old velvet mesquite (Prosopis velutina) growing along Duquesne Road that has a girth of 16 feet, or a mountain yucca (Yucca schottii) in a backyard near downtown Patagonia that towers at 20 feet. Still not impressed?

How about a Fremont cottonwood (Populus fremontii var. fremonti) near Sonoita Creek that measures 504 inches in circumference, is 92 feet tall, and has a spread of 108 feet - the world's record!

"We have more champions per square mile then any other part of the state," said Ken Morrow, the state coordinator for the Arizona Register of Big Trees. Morrow recently gave a presentation to the Pimeria Alta Garden Club on how to measure and nominate record trees.

Morrow said that part of the reason for the large number of "champion" trees in Santa Cruz County (around a half-dozen including a co-champion velvet ash) has to do with the presence of perennial streams such as Sonoita Creek. "This allows trees to always have their feet in the water."

Morrow worked in the nursery business for 30 years and became interested in champion trees when customers would come in and ask, "Just how big does this tree get?" He started doing a bit of investigating and soon developed a passion for the sport.

"There's three measurements you have to take, and a point system that determines how you compare two of the same species," Morrow explained. The trunk circumference is the most important measurement and is measured at 4 1/2 feet if possible. The tree gains a point for each inch in girth and a point for each foot in height. Also you get a point for each four feet of crown spread. The points are then added together for a final score.

However, it's not always as straightforward as one might think. Morrow pointed out that sometimes trees "don't cooperate" like when they are growing on a slope, and measurements have to be adjusted accordingly. He also said that he has revisited record trees only to find that they been struck down by lightning or burned up in a wildfire.

Others are simply on the verge of keeling over from old age such as the record velvet mesquite, the first state champion listed on the register that he said is 60 percent to 70 percent on its way out. Morrow also said he once came across a dispensed rocket sticking out of the sand ominously close to a record desert ironwood (Olneya tesota) on the Goldwater Air Force Range.

"You can't get to emotionally involved with these things because you do lose them," Morrow said referring to an Arizona Walnut (Jugans major) that he discovered and got listed only to find out that someone else might have found one a bit larger. "One of the fun parts of the program is that you never really know if you have the biggest one. There's always another canyon and another trail, and you can never see the whole state."