Big Atlantic White Cedar found today Barry Caselli
  January 18, 2008

Today I was hiking a trail in the northern part of Egg Harbor City (NJ, if anyone doesn't know). I've come to the conclusion that the trail is one of Egg Harbor's streets that were built but never used. There are a few of those. According to maps and aerial photos the trail/road lines up with New Orleans Avenue, further south in the city. The northern 2/3 of the city, or maybe 3/4 of it, is nearly uninabited, though I believe the City would like to change that. But there is so much wetlands, in the form of cedar swamps and streams, that it would be impossible to develop much of it. Where this sand road/trail crosses a stream there is the remains of an old wooden bridge. The bridge was seriously damaged from lack of use and maintenance over the years and decades. There were baby Atlantic White Cedars growing up in the wood! Because of the bridge being unpassable, the people with dirt bikes and ATVs have  attempted to cross the stream about 50 feet west
 of there. So I walked down there to see what I could see, and I found the cedar. This is definitely the largest White Cedar I've ever found. About 2 to 3 feet up from the base the tree trunk is broken, but the tree only leans a little, because other trees are holding it up. It's definitely broken, and you should be able to tell that from the photos. But it is also very much alive. There's no reason to believe that it will die any time soon, unless it breaks completely off. It is nearly as big as yesterday's Pitch Pine, which I already sent pictures of.
People have been cutting our Atlantic White Cedars since the early 1700s, and there are none of the old ones left, to my knowledge, unless there are some at Bear Swamp in Cumberland County, but I've heard that all the trees there are hardwoods. This tree that I found is quite old, but not from the original forest, unfortunately. But I was very impressed with it.
Barry

Continued at:
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/637c48a80569f9b5?hl=en