The order that made this oak a protected national monument is dated June 2026, which makes it one of the newest protected trees in Lithuania and one of the least written about. It arrived on the list with 30 other oaks, a run of limes and six boulders. The same order draws a protection zone around the trunk: 0.041 hectares, roughly 410 square metres of forest floor that now belongs to the tree. It is 31 metres tall and 4.85 metres round at chest height, standing in Balbieriškis Forest, 2,855 hectares of state forest in the Prienai district. Walk around it and it changes character. One side is in good order and carries heavy branches; the other is lichened over with damaged bark. That is what a large oak in a working forest actually looks like up close, and it is more worth the walk than a postcard specimen. It has an official sibling. Būdininkų II was protected under the same order and stands nearby, which is how a forest ends up with numbered trees. Lithuania's tallest tree, a larch, grows 6.4 kilometres away in the same forestry district, close enough to make an afternoon of the two, though not close enough to walk between them. Nobody has published an age for this oak. If you have seen a figure on a sign or in a survey, tell us.
From people who stood here
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Getting there
Būdininkai village, Prienai district, Lithuania, in Balbieriškis Forest, about 1.7km south of the A16 (Vilnius-Prienai-Marijampolė) highway, reached via a gravel road from the Naujosios Ūtos bus stop
You can recognise it by its lopsided condition, one side healthy with heavy branches, the other lichened over with damaged bark. It stands in Balbieriskis Forest near Budininkai village.
Free, public. Stands in Balbieriškis Forest, a 2,855-hectare state-important forest (Prienai Forest Management Board's Naujoji Ūta / Degsnė forestry districts), the same forest complex the already-published Degsnė Forest Larch stands in. Reached via a gravel road off the A16 highway at the Naujosios Ūtos bus stop, toward the Balbieriškis forest biosphere-polygon boundary marker. No gate, fee or private land involved.
No public transport reaches the tree itself; nearest stop is Naujoji Ūta on the A16 (Vilnius-Prienai-Marijampolė), then a gravel forest road on foot, bike or by car. About 6.4km from the Degsnė Forest Larch (deg_001), a plausible day-trip pairing within the same forest, though not a walk between the two.
In fruit
September to October: acorns drop, and a good mast year buries the ground in them
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. The story was written with AI from these sources, and readers who know the tree correct it.
- In the official register: Saugomų teritorijų valstybės kadastras (STVK), no. 0310506000169
- lt.wikipedia.org
- madeinvilnius.lt
- Lietuvos Respublikos saugomų teritorijų valstybės kadastras (STVK), gamtos paveldo objektai, botanical objects, no. 0310506000169