Forests of Champions

A Conversation with Tree Farmer David Milarch Who Sees New Hope in Old Giants.By David Yarrow Christmas Eve, 1996, I interviewed David Milarch, founder of the Michigan Champion Tree Project. Tall, bearded, with stout limbs and a thick trunk, he looks like a latter day Paul Bunyan. Or a full size chestnut tree in flesh and blood. But his lumberjack physique is dwarfed by his immense ideas - and his ardent exposition of them. However, the Paul Bunyan figure interrogating me is no lumberjack yelling, "Timber!" His vision is to grow, not cut trees - to renew, not remove, forests. And the big man is talking about the biggest of the big trees: the Champi...