Martha’s Vineyard stunning natural beauty is what brings many of us — myself included — back year after year. That beauty exists in the grand sweep of things, but also in the details: a small piece of driftwood on the beach, a single lady slipper orchid, the call of the whippoorwill.
And for me, anyway, there is also the ubiquitous presence of a particular tree: the dune oak. It’s the dune oak because it grows on dunes, but it has other names too: holly oak because the leaves look like holly leaves, bear oak because bears like to eat the acorns, and scrub oak because it’s scrubby.
But for many of us, Quercus ilicifolia is best known as the dune oak. It’s a beautiful tree. Never large, often with multiple trunks, the mature acorns dark, almost black. It is an iconic Island species.
Other trees on the Island — red oaks, pines, maples, sassafras and the like — find the Vineyard to be a somewhat marginal habitat. But for the dune oak, the Vineyard is the epicenter of its east coast distribution. Marginal soil, sand and dryness provides a habitat where they can grow well and compete effectively against other trees. With so many dune oaks on the Island, and there are many, some quite impressive, one might wonder: which is the largest and most massive specimen? And not just the biggest on the Island, but the biggest anywhere, the national champion. Surely, with so much prime habitat, the largest identified individual of this marvelous species must be somewhere on Martha’s Vineyard.
Sadly, it is not.
The nation’s current largest recorded dune oak is in Windsor, Conn. This information comes from the database of the National Champion Tree program, which is run by the nonprofit, American Forests, established in 1875. You can go visit this tree. Most trees in the registry are on private property and do not come with specific location information, but this tree is in a public park, Northwest Park in Windsor, Conn., so its location is known and it can easily be visited.
It’s a nice enough tree — it appears someone planted it outside their farmhouse before the land was a park. But here is the thing: How many dune oaks total are there growing in the town of Windsor, Conn.? The answer is that there is exactly one. And how many dune oaks are there growing on Martha’s Vineyard? There are tens of thousands! Given this, it is quite likely one of these is the true champion, an individual that is larger than the Windsor tree and just needs to be found in order to place the National Champion of such an iconic Vineyard tree where it belongs — on Martha’s Vineyard.
Here is where Gazette readers can make a big difference. For the last decade I have searched the dune oaks on the Island and found some big ones (true, reaching them often involves plunging into some of the most virulent tick habitat on the planet, but with proper precautions it can be done) but no definite champion yet. I can’t search everywhere though and so I am appealing to Island residents.
Do you have a big dune oak? Maybe your neighbor does and doesn’t know it? Do you want to submit it as a national champion? If so, I would be glad to assist and am including an email address (championduneoak@gmail.com) at which you can contact me and we can work together on the submission. And, just so you know, the only location information provided by American Forests for any champion tree is the county in which it grows. Thus, a champion on Martha’s Vineyard would be listed in the registry as: Dune oak, Quercus ilicifolia, Dukes County, Massachusetts. Nothing more. This protects property owners from people coming around looking for the big tree.
For those who may be interested, here are a few specifics. First, there are many wonderful and stately trees on the Island, but they may not necessarily be a champion (for example, the majestic State Road oak in West Tisbury) and they also have to be a native species (which unfortunately eliminates Edgartown’s legendary pagoda tree). Given these limitations, it’s really the dune oak that’s the best bet for finding an Island champion (pitch pine might be a second possibility).
Secondly, how do you measure a big tree? The formula is simple. It’s a matter of points: circumference (inches) + height (feet) + 25 per cent of average crown spread (feet) = total points. Circumference is taken at 54 inches above the base but in the case of a multi-trunked tree (and nearly all dune oaks are multi-trunked), it’s at the narrowest point below the split in the trunk. That’s basically it (for more information see the website of the National Champion Tree Program). The current champion in Windsor has 110 points, so that’s the number to beat.
A dune oak is not a large tree and does not loudly announce its presence. It’s probably more often cleared as underbrush rather than valued in the landscape. However, with age, it does take on a bonsai-like beauty while playing an important role in the Island’s ecology. The good people of Connecticut no doubt appreciate their tree (they even made a nice plaque for it) and might be a bit disappointed if it were to lose its champion status. But I feel the true champion must be somewhere out there on the Island — a gnarly old Methuselah biding its time for centuries in some thicket. Wouldn’t it be nice if the national champion for this quintessential Vineyard tree were on the Vineyard, where it surely belongs?
If you think you have a winner, please email me, Bob Dickerman at championduneoak@gmail.com, and we can work together to get a submission together.
Alternatively, if you’re the lucky owner (or should I say current steward) of this awesome tree, you could certainly submit an application yourself.
Bob Dickerman lives in Hatfield and Chappaquiddick.
This article appears in March 13, 2026.