By Faith Peppers
University of
Georgia

Some people see a tree and think shade from the summer sun.
Some remember climbing to the top in days gone by. Tim Smalley
and his graduate student Sarah Thompson see a rich heritage and
want to record it for posterity. And they’re asking for your
help.

“We’re trying to document all the unique and historically
significant trees in Georgia,” said Smalley, a University of
Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
horticulture professor. “We want Georgians to appreciate the
value of trees to their communities.”

Smalley and Thompson are using Global Positioning Systems to
make accurate maps and video documentation to record their
findings. They’re visiting communities and talking face-to-face
with local tree lovers.

“We’re seeking out people in the communities who really know
the trees,” Smalley said. University experts and community
foresters and arborists have nominated many trees already. “But
there may be that one tree we might miss somewhere in
Georgia.”

To make sure they don’t miss that tree, Smalley and Thompson
have developed the Significant Trees of Georgia Web site
(www.uga.edu/significanttreesofgeorgia).
There, people can
nominate trees they find unique in some way or know the history
of.

“We’re using GPS to locate them so we can make accurate maps,”
Smalley said. “Some will be private. Others will be available
for the public to see. Hopefully, anyone who is a tree lover
can visit our Web site in the future and find interesting trees
in any region of Georgia.”

Smalley and Thompson plan to document only significant trees
and groves of trees in the landscapes of Georgia. They don’t
plan to document Georgia’s Champion Trees, which are the
state’s largest trees and are often found in isolated
woodlands.

“Champion Trees have already been documented,” Smalley
said. “We want to document trees found in landscapes which may
be significant for their uniqueness, beauty or role in the
community rather than for their size.”

Smalley hopes the project will help people be more sensitive to
the value of older trees. “Trees unite a community,” he
said. “When people say, ‘What a beautiful neighborhood,’
they’re really saying, ‘What beautiful trees.’”

Some trees already on Smalley’s list include Lanier’s oak in
Brunswick, Ga., and “the tree that owns itself” in Athens,
Ga.

Lanier’s oak is the tree that Georgia poet Sydney Lanier sat
under while he wrote the “Marshes of Glynn.” And Thompson has
found that the Athens tree was actually a test by the local
newspaper for UGA law students to see if a tree could really
own itself.

“What we really hope is that this project will raise awareness,
document trees and identify those trees that might need help,”
Smalley said.

If you’d like to nominate a tree in your community or a tree
you know about in Georgia, visit the Significant
Trees of Georgia Web site.