'The Sun' Follows Maloof on Quest for Largest Tree
SALISBURY, MD---The lion may have earned a reputation as “king of the jungle,” but Dr. Joan Maloof of Salisbury University’s Biological Sciences Department is more interested in finding out which tree is “king of the forest.”
With Drs. Judith Stribling of the Biological Sciences Department, Alexis Aguilar of the Geography and Geosciences Department and Michael Lewis of the History Department, she received a $25,000 grant from The Nature Conservancy to study the history of original forest landscapes in the Nassawango Creek Watershed near Snow Hill, MD.
During that study, she discovered a black gum tree she believed could have been a new state record holder. While the tree didn’t quite top the current record, The Baltimore Sun followed Maloof as she measured and documented the specimen, taking its readers through the process of what it takes to verify a Maryland “big tree”: