Some of the biggest trees in the entire world grow in Santa Barbara County, and as of this month, we can now officially boast three more.
The monkey’s hand tree in Goleta Valley’s Lassen Open Space, a sweetshade tree on the corner of Castillo and Dibblee streets in Santa Barbara, and a lemon-scented gum in the Winchester Canyon region of Goleta were recently declared national champions, meaning that they are the biggest specimens of their kind in the whole country. The term “champion tree” was developed by conservation nonprofit American Forests to designate exemplary trees, and the county now can count nine in its king’s court.
The City of Santa Barbara alone contains nearly 500 species of trees, making it “probably one of the most diverse urban forests in the world,” said Matt Ritter, who is director of the Cal Poly S.L.O. Plant Conservatory and oversees the California Registry of Big Trees. Ritter measured and nominated the sweetshade tree alongside Randy Baldwin, the general manager of San Marcos Growers.