JOHANNESBURG -- An 11-year-old boy, Dominic Current, has won the Michigan Big Tree Hunt 2008-2009 in the category of the largest tree of any species found in a specific county which has not been registered in previous contests.

The tree he located was in Montmorency County — a sugar maple with a 119-inch circumference.

Dominic was assisted in researching the tree contest by Vickie Hoecherl, librarian at the Johannesburg branch of the Otsego County Library.

“Dominic’s family has a Johannesburg mailing address, but they actually live in Montmorency,” Hoecherl said. “The kids are home schooled, so their mother brings them to the library a lot.”

“We’re at the library all the time,” Dominic’s mother, Cindy Current, confirms. “The older kids like to read. At least once a week, Vickie puts on a story hour for kids and I bring the young ones in for that.”

When asked what method she’d used to home school her 15 children, of which Dominic is third from the youngest, Current replied that it was all “interest based.” She made sure her children were educated in what interested them.

Dominic’s father is a carpenter and farms on the side, which might explain why Dominic is more interested in farming and horses right now than forestry and trees.

Though quiet and reserved upon first meeting, he became more animated when he talked about his hopes for the future.

“I want to be a horse trainer,” Dominic said. “We have a  horse now. It’s a Haflinger named Shot. Haflingers are smaller horses made for pulling buggies and carts. Maybe doing a little plowing. My older brother, Joachim, likes horses, too.”

The contest was run by Global ReLeaf of Michigan, Inc. of Ann Arbor, a nonprofit, agency concerned with preserving the environment. A representative of Global Releaf visited Dominic’s sugar maple tree to measure it personally, before the boy could be declared a winner. Dominic will receive a certificate and a prize, but he has not yet received the prize and isn’t sure what it will be.

For more information on the Johannesburg branch of the library, call 732-3928. Information about Global Releaf can be found online at info@globalreleaf.org.

Contact Lorene Parshall at 748-4522 or lorene@gaylordheraldtimes.com

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