Preserving and recognizing urban trees is the goal of a Forsyth County Cooperative Extension program.
The water oak in Pat Lewter’s Clemmons front yard seems like a circus tent from underneath. Its canopy, 97 feet across, actually provides shelter when it rains, says Lewter, owner of two of Forsyth County’s Treasured Trees.The companion water oak in Lewter’s back yard has a larger trunk, but its canopy has been reduced over the years by power line pruning. But with nothing standing in its way, the water oak in the front has continued stretching out its limbs for more than 300 years.
“This is just about the best canopy on any tree in our county,” said Toby Bost, Forsyth agricultural agent and founder of Forsyth’s Treasured Trees program.
Members of Forsyth’s Treasured Trees Committee recently showed off some of the county’s outstanding trees to owners whose trees were selected for the program this year. Each year, trees nominated for the program are evaluated, and new Treasured Trees are added to Forsyth’s list.
Of 75 trees identified for the program, three are North Carolina State Champion trees, including a black walnut, a beech and a gingko. Other significant trees identified by the program are a 110-foot hickory, a 69-foot osage orange, a 125-foot red oak and a 52-foot American holly.
The program was started in the fall of 1999 with a $8,700 grant from the N.C. Division of Forest Resources. Modeled after similar programs in Wake, Wilson and Buncombe counties, the Forsyth program recognizes trees of historic, environmental or significant value due to age, size or adaptability to the region.
The trees may be on public or private property and may be nominated by anyone. Extension’s Treasured Tree Committee measures and evaluates the trees to verify their prospect for continued life. And the program emphasizes trees in residential areas, as well as historic estates like Tanglewood, the Reynolds family country estate in Clemmons, Bost said.
Tanglewood is home to several champion trees, including a “Bicentennial Oak” recognized by the National Arbor Associaton and International Society of Arborculture and the North Carolina State Champion Black Walnut.
Many of Forsyth’s Treasured Trees are found in residential yards. When the committee set out to visit several tree sites, several champions were all but hidden by their own foliage. The N.C. State Champion Beech Tree at a Clemmons residence was hardly noticeable until committee members stood beneath its 70-foot canopy and gazed up into its 110-foot frame.
Historic trees also qualify for the program. A white oak near Winston-Salem’s Shallow Ford Park bears iron rings that testify to its past as a hitching post in days when horse-drawn carts brought farm produce to be sold in town.
In addition to helping recognize and protect some of the county’s most significant trees, the program is also charged with planting and maintaining public trees. One-third of the grant was used to plant 28 new species of trees at Tanglewood Park Arboretum and SciWorks Environmental Park, the county’s two tree-demonstration areas. Forsyth’s Master Gardener volunteers are helping to develop and maintain the Tanglewood arboretum.
—Natalie
Hampton
