MEDFORD — Unless you are an eagle soaring above the conifer forest or a big-tree hunter with an eagle eye, chances are you wouldn’t give the ponderosa pine a second glance.

After all, it is but one of many wooden spires reaching into the green forest canopy high overhead in the Rogue River- Siskiyou National Forest.

But mammoth-tree hunters Michael Taylor, of Trinity County, Calif., and Mario Vaden, of Beaverton, instantly knew on Jan. 3 they had discovered a new pine king.

‘Knew right away’

“We were walking along, saw the top of the tree sticking up, and we both said, ‘Wow!’” Taylor said. “I knew right away it was the tallest.”

“We have a new world record,” Vaden said.

Not only is the ponderosa, at 268.35 feet high, the tallest known of its species, it is also the tallest known pine tree of any pine species on the planet, they say.

Consider this: The pine’s height is roughly 32 feet shy of a football field turned on end.

What’s more, it is among at least four trees in the grove that are taller than the tallest-known pines on the globe, they add.

“This is like walking into a cathedral,” marveled Frank Calla- han, 63, of Central Point, a botanist and Oregon’s reigning big-tree finder who joined the duo on a visit to the titanic trees last week.

“Instead of looking at the paintings on the ceiling at something like the great Michelangelo pieces, you are looking up at great architecture high in the trees,” Callahan added as he looked straight up.

The site is a heavily treed little basin in the Wild Rivers Ranger District within two-dozen miles west of Grants Pass and south of the Rogue River. The tree hunters asked that the pines’ exact location not be identified because of concerns they may be vandalized.

Big-tree hunters such as Callahan use a formula, including height, diameter and circumference, to come up with a champion tree, which is then placed on the National Register of Big Trees kept by American Forests, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization. In fact, Callahan has 19 national champion trees in Oregon to his credit, making him the top big-tree hunter in the state, according to the Oregon Department of Forestry.

But Taylor, 44, an engineer by training, and professional arborist Vaden, 51, focus on height in their search. Taylor, along with Chris Atkins, discovered a redwood tree dubbed “Hyperion,” which towers 379.3 feet above the ground, making it the tallest known redwood on Earth.

Their hunt for that redwood, located in Redwood National Park south of Crescent City, Calif., was featured in the book about tall-tree hunters, “Wild Trees,” by acclaimed author Richard Preston.

To precisely measure a tree’s height, Taylor and Vaden employ a laser range finder. The computerized device, which considers factors such as the angle, determines how tall a tree is by measuring the time it takes the light to reflect back to the receiver.

They say the champion tree is actually a bit taller than measured because the tripod holding the range finder had to be placed slightly uphill from ground level of the tree to allow the top to be seen. They used three different range finders to verify their measurements.

However, they say the tree will need to be physically measured by a climber to confirm its height. They have notified forest officials, who did not know about these particular tall pines.

Keeping tree healthy

Wayne Rolle, a forest botanist, called the discovery “exciting.”

“We’re looking forward to learning the exact location of this tree, and taking any necessary steps to keep this tree intact and healthy,” Rolle said.

Before hiking out of the pocket of tall pines, Taylor put his laptop on the hood of a nearby pickup truck and pulled up Google Earth.

His computer can allow him to calculate the height by providing the ground-level differential, he noted. But the computer search revealed no taller trees in the vicinity.

Nor could the big-tree hunters find a spot providing a real-life overlook of the area.

“Too many trees to see anything,” one of them observed.

All told, a dozen “super tall” pines stand in the grove, said Vaden, a former Applegate Valley resident. The last two were found during a recent visit to the area, he noted.

“Out of that group of 12, four of those ponderosas are new world’s tallest pines, each taller than the previously known world’s tallest pine among any pine species,” he said.

The four tallest pines in the grove are 268.35, 266, 262 and 259.5 feet, he said.

The tallest previously known ponderosa pine is in the aptly named Big Pine Campground southwest of Grants Pass, standing officially at 259 feet. However, Taylor and Vaden measured it at 252.3 feet.

“It may have lost some height since it was last measured,” Taylor said. “The top is dome-shaped, so it probably did.”

It is not uncommon for tall trees to lose their tops during a storm, he said.

The pine previously labeled as the tallest in the world was a sugar pine measuring 269.2 feet in California’s Yosemite National Park, but it died in 2009, Taylor said.