They are the biggest trees of their species in all of Puerto Rico. Some are also among the oldest living organisms and could have been around before your parents and grandparents were born. We call them Champion Trees and with your help, we want to find each and every one of them!

The Champion Trees project is a collaboration with the International Institute of Tropical Forestry, a part of the US Forest Service. The project’s events take you throughout Puerto Rico and its islands as a volunteer to search, identify, measure and document our Champion Trees.

Each event is a unique adventure in citizen science where you join our team in search for known Champion Trees to check if they are still champions of their species and to discover a new champions waiting to be documented.

When you participate as a volunteer you learn the criteria for a tree to become a champion and you also practice the measurement and documentation procedure that is used for each tree. Once you learn this process you can nominate your own Champion Trees and organize your own journeys to discover them.

The actual register of Champion Trees contains 139 individuals documented in urban and rural settings, but there are 750 species of trees in all of Puerto Rico! That’s why your help is so important to know the champions of all species.

Whether they are in our cities or in our deepest forests, no champion lives isolated, they are all part of ecological communities that are crucial for our quality of life and for the health of the ecosystems we depend on. Being a volunteer of the Champion Trees project lets you learn about these relationships, the ecosystems of each champion and the urban and natural landscapes where they exist.

What are you waiting for to join the search? Come discover Puerto Rico’s Champion Trees!

Click here to see upcoming Champion Trees events.

If you already know the procedure to nominate a new champion, click button to go to our online form.