WILMINGTON — They’re regal, mighty, and Wilmington wouldn’t be the same without them. But they’re getting on in years.
Some of the laurel oaks that spread over Market Street between 16th and 21st streets are more than 70 years old, with tendrils of Spanish moss hanging from their branches like gray hair. Many are rotting inside-out in what could become a hazard for the motorists who travel under their canopy.
Those are among considerations in a multi-partner “reforestation” effort underway for the tree corridor, which the Historic Wilmington Foundation (HWF) placed on its list of “Most Threatened Historic Places” last year.
“They add so much to the quality of the city,” HWF Executive Director George Edwards said of the aging oaks, noting the sense of community and character they provide. “But you have to maintain that canopy.”
Doing so might involve the removal of 12 to 20 of the oldest or unhealthiest specimens along the five-block stretch of Market Street while new trees are planted, Edwards said.
“The laurel oaks have been suffering for years from heart rot, which is when organisms get into the core of the tree and essentially start eating it from the inside,” Edwards explained. “It may look great to you and me, it’s got green leaves, but on the inside it’s rotting.” Scrapes and knocks from automobiles haven’t helped the trees’ health, he added.
For more than a year HWF has worked to raise funds—it collected $2,200 during an event at the Bellamy Mansion last week—and has so far accumulated about $6,000 to combine with a state grant the City of Wilmington is pursuing for the project.
If awarded to the city, that $50,000 highway beautification grant from the N.C. Department of Transportation (DOT) could give partners enough money for the entire reforestation. Edwards added that the DOT would water the new oak plantings for the entire first year.
“As the older trees die, as they will, these newer trees will come up and replace them,” said Wilmington City Councilman Kevin O’Grady, who presented a unanimously approved resolution of support for the project at council’s Aug. 21 meeting. “Thirty, 40 years from now, our grandchildren will come to Wilmington and they will be able to enjoy the same canopy that we see there today.”
Wilmington Tree Commission Vice-Chairman Bill Jayne, another partner, said the trees are a vital part of the city as they create “a true neighborhood where walking is encouraged and neighbors know each other.”
Jayne is also the head of the corridor area’s community group, the Carolina Place-Ardmore Neighborhood Association, which he said has also committed to watering the plantings.
The partners in the reforestation plan to plant high-rise live oaks, a sturdy species that Edwards said grows taller than the laurel oaks currently in place. It’s also a faster-growing tree.
When planted, “They’ll already be a decent size—a two-, three-, four-inch caliper tree—and the tree is going to stand in the vicinity of 12, 13, 14 feet,” Edwards said. “I’ve been told they can maybe double in size in seven to nine years.”
Planting could begin in late fall, he said.
The effort was inspired by a similar, city-community-based oak revitalization conducted along Fifth Avenue last year, partners said. That project, which planted 78 live oaks—and more are on the way—recently earned Wilmington recognition as “Tree City USA of the Year” from the N.C. Forest Service. Indeed, the narrative attached to the award said the project “stands as an example of public-private collaboration and a model for future reforestation projects within the city.”
Edwards said the subsequent Market Street reforestation likely will make way for another.
“Everybody loves a tree, just about,” he said. “Hardly a soul out there who doesn’t love a tree.”
