The seed gatherers - identification and collection of historic tree seed and reproduction for America's Historic Forests program - Focus

American Forests, Jan-Feb, 1991 by Elizabeth Chase Morrow, Richard J. Crouse

"I'm meeting with the ranger on Monday," says Jennifer Frongillo, a Global ReLeaf cooperator in Winchester, Massachusetts, and leader of a Girl Scout troop. Frongillo's scout troop want to gather seeds from Walden Woods State Reservation, where the trees grow that inspired Thoreau. "Meeting the ranger completes the footwork I've done," Frongillo says. "We also plan to collect seeds from historic red oaks, American elms, and sugar maples at Hammond Castle in Gloucester, Massachusetts."

All across the nation, the appeal of the Historic Forests is opening gates to the volunteers who proudly wear their Global ReLeaf T-Shirts with Famous Seed Collector" emblazoned on the back. Some are drawn by the opportunity for environmental activism, others by the educational component.

One of thE latter is Suzanne Malec, an urban-forestry educator and Global ReLeaf cooperator who develops programs to encourage city dwellers to "own" their environment. "We're developing a program to identify champion trees in the city," says Malec, who envisions inner-city Historic Groves.

Still others are drawn by the historic component. "I'm 80 years old,"says Anita Totman of Phippsburg, Maine, but I crawled around on the ground to gather seeds from the Constitutional Bicentennial English linden. A shipbuilder named McCobb brought this tree back from England in 1774." Totman sees the Historic Forests as a way to encourage future generations to remember the people and events that built this nation.

Some volunteers are historic preservationists who understand that venerable old trees are an integral component of historic districts, giving them life.

The people-to-people nature of Historic Forests is creating a groundswell of interest. "People in my town want to know more than I can tell them," says Harriett Edwards.

Tell them to call Susan Fisher at 904/396-5900. She can't wait to talk about trees for America's Historic Forests.

How To HELP

To have a seedling planted for you in America's Historic Forests, send a check for $30 to America's Historic Forests, P.O. Box 47560, Jacksonville, FL 32247-7560, or call 9041396-5900. A tree will be planted in your name or in the name of any other individual you designate.

You will receive a Certificate of Authenticity indicating what historic or champion tree produced the seedling, a brief history of the famous tree, the location of your tree, the person in whose name it was planted, a one-year subscription to America's Historic Forests newsletter, and an AHF membership in AFA.

The Legacy

Each summer, when I visit the Northwest to backpack and taste the wilderness, I make a special point to visit the Ross Creek Giant Cedars in Montana's Bull River Valley or the Settlers Grove Cedars near Murray, Idaho. In a good year I'll visit both. In the three or four hours I spend there, I'm able to get a year's worth of -the feeling"-not just love for the trees and the place but love for the planet itself. The fact that these old trees that have fought the wind and snow and drought have been there for so long and seen so much is both humbling and rejuvenating for me.