Historic Tree Symposium
Old Growth Forests and Presidential Estates
Sunday, April 6, 2014, 1 PM to 5 PM
Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards present two well-known and beloved historian-horticulturists and two acclaimed ecologists.
These experts in their field will speak on Virginia presidents, their love of trees, and how Mt. Vernon, Monticello and Montpelier still carry out their ideas and plans.
The concept of Old-Growth Forest will be introduced and considered in terms of the historic estates and also accessible.
We bring you descriptions of the past , the challenges of today and hopes for the future.
Tom Dierauf worked at the Virginia Department Of Forestry for 38 years, the last 25 years as Chief of Research. He teaches Natural History and Appalachian Ecology at PVCC.
He gives program walks at Ivy Creek Nature Center, as well as for Tree Stewards and Master Naturalists. Our Forests are Changing, a significant article on hardwoods is viewable online.
Landmark Forest Study describing extensive research on Madison’s woodland, is viewable at montpelier.org. It recounts the forest’s previous agricultural use and its protection in 1930
by the Duponts. With its present canopy of mature trees mostly 80 –170 years old, and being open to the public this forest has been selected as an Old-Growth Forest Network member.
Peter J. Hatch, until recently Director of Horticulture at Monticello, has 38 years of experience, primarily there, in the restoration, care, and interpretation of historic landscapes. A celebrated author of four books about the gardens of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, Hatch lectures on Jefferson and the history of garden plants. Presently, he gardens and botanizes from his home in Crozet, and travel to promote his latest book A Rich Spot of Earth: Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Garden at Monticello.
Joan Maloof, Professor Emeritus at Salisbury University, founded the Old-Growth Forest Network to preserve, protect and promote the country’s few remaining stands of old-growth forest. She spends her time lecturing, writing, visiting forests, assisting private landowners, and supporting local groups trying to protect community forests from development. Her books include:Teaching Trees: Lessons from the Forest, admired for its stories, beautiful and biologically accurate, with illustrations by John Abbott from the 1700s; Among the Ancients: Adventures in the Eastern Old-Growth Forests, a guide to publicly accessible mature forests with ecological observations.
Dean Norton is Director of Horticulture at Mount Vernon since 1969. He is responsible for applying the latest plant science and management techniques to horticulture in a historic setting. For over 35 years Dean has researched 18th century gardens and gardening practices. He has received numerous awards from garden clubs, horticultural and historic societies on a national level.
