Tree Biggest Organization United States Feet Meters Years

American Forests is a nonprofit organization that has a "National Big Tree Program" that locates and protects the biggest trees in the United States. The organization "keeps" (maintains) a "registry" (a list) of 786 of the largest "specimens" (individuals; samples) for hundreds of species or types of trees throughout the United States. The organization calculates a total number of points for each tree as the "sum" (addition) of the tree's "circumference" (distance around the "trunk" (the vertical, wooden part of the tree)), the height, and one-fourth of the "crown spread" (the distance from one edge of the leafy parts to the other).

The "giant sequoias" of northern California are considered the biggest trees in the United States. The General Sherman Tree is the largest known tree on Earth by "volume" (total area occupied by the tree). It is 275 feet (83.8 meters) tall, with a trunk "diameter" (the distance across a circle) of 25 feet (7.7 meters) and is believed to be between 2,300 and 2,700 years old.

The Hyperion Tree is the tallest tree in the world. It is a "coast redwood" that "towers" (is much taller than other objects) over the forest at 379.3 feet (115.61 meters) tall and may be 700-800 years old.

But the size of a tree is not always "correlated with" (moving in the same direction as) age. The oldest individual tree in the world is a Great Basin bristlecone pine in the White Mountains of California, and is believed to be 5,062 years old. But people have found "clonal trees" (trees that are connected and grow from a single "ancestor" (an older individual in the same family) that are even older.