At 7:40 a.m. on the morning of December 9, 2015, the sound of the first firing up of a chain saw was heard around the parking lot of St. Paul’s Parish, Kent. It was time to begin the felling of Maryland’s most historical tree, the 400 year old United States Champion Swamp Chestnut Oak (Quercus michauxii). There have been many claims that other Maryland trees are older, but according to the Big Tree Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Maryland Department of