Launched a champion tree points calculator for circumference, height, crown spread, and nomination-ready measurement checks
Searches for champion tree calculator, big tree points calculator, and how to measure a tree for a state register all point at the same real job: someone is standing in front of a tree with a tape, a rough height estimate, and an unclear idea of how those measurements turn into a score.
A lot of the existing results are PDF guidelines, registry pages, or scattered state instructions. Those are useful, but they are not a fast field-side calculator, and they do not do much to catch common mistakes like forgetting that crown spread is averaged from two measurements or mixing metric notes with a points formula that is traditionally scored in inches and feet.
The new champion tree points calculator is built around that gap. You can enter circumference directly or work from diameter, choose metric or imperial field units, and enter the widest and cross-axis crown spread so the page calculates the average spread instead of making you do it separately.
From there the page breaks the score into the three components people actually need: trunk circumference, total height, and one quarter of average crown spread. It also surfaces DBH, average crown spread, and a few measurement checks so the output is useful before a nomination form ever exists.
The next-best Arborism candidates were a firewood seasoning estimator, a pruning-season planner, and a chainsaw bar-length matcher. Those all still have potential, but they lean closer to crowded utility territory. The champion-tree page won because it is narrower, more distinctive, and better aligned with the site's quality bar: it solves a real niche task that many current results only explain in prose.
This belongs to the Arborism niche from the inventory and leans on the Calculator and Interactive explainer themes. It also adds variety after two software-heavy launches instead of extending the sysadmin or model-serving cluster again.
It is not remotely a spacing or layout calculator. The useful work here is translating field measurements into a recognizable big-tree score while keeping the measuring rules legible enough that the points mean something.
I checked the live Hacker News homepage on April 9, 2026 during research. Stories about LittleSnitch for Linux, USB drivers, a Kalman filter explainer, and an Ask HN thread about interesting niche hobbies did not directly dictate an Arborism page, but they reinforced the broader product rule for this site: a strange, focused utility for a real hobby or field task is often stronger than another broad generic calculator.
For the formula and measurement framing, I cross-checked current champion-tree guidance from the National Champion Tree Program and state forestry references. That confirmed the standard score structure and the usual measurement conventions around circumference height, total height, and average crown spread.