DMGA Visits Pinetum at Thompson Mills Forest October 19, 2009, promised to be a sunny but chilly day for DMGA's field trip to the Thompson Mills Forest State Arboretum in Braselton. This was our second trip to the 330 acre property which was deeded to the University of Georgia in 1980 by Lenox Thornton of Braselton. Since 1980, 100 native tree species have been added to the 80 native species which were already there. Currently the collection includes 90 percent of the native trees of Georgia and is visited by 4H groups, Boy Scouts, garden clubs, and others interested in trees. On this trip we had come to visit the Pinetum—a section of the property which includes all the native pines of Georgia as well as various conifer species from around the world. We met our guide, Forest Manager Bill Lott, at 10:00 and after some preliminary discussion climbed into an SUV for a slow trip into the back woods. We parked near a pine forest containing a variety of Georgia native pines. In the course of our wanderings we came to a place where, as Bill pointed out, one can see all the Georgia native pines from one spot. 
An extremely knowledgeable guide, Bill has worked at the Arboretum for 27 years and has planted or helped plant most of the new trees that have been put in. He can tell stories about most of them. We saw Eastern White, Loblolly, Longleaf, Pitch, Pond, Shortleaf, Slash, and Virginia Pine, to name a few. There were also Hemlock, Cedar, Bald Cypress, Dawn Redwood, and exotic conifers from around the world. The trees are labeled and the different trails are color coded, so there are several miles of self guided walks available to the visitor. We found, however, that Bill's narration and knowledge of the history of most of the trees there was invaluable. Bill then led us to a granite outcropping with beautiful mosses, lichens, earthstars, and the unusual vegetation we often associate with granite. The weather had warmed up considerably and we thoroughly enjoyed the walk and the discussion. Three hours later, we headed back to where we had started—only to be enticed off the beaten track by a White Mimosa tree—which led us back into the woods to see Persimmon, Sparkleberry, Sassafras, Chestnut and almost every Oak imaginable. We finally broke for a picnic lunch at 3:00—all of us enthused and excited by what we had seen. We hope to go back in January for a tree ID lesson when the trees don't have their leaves. Join us! Article contributed by Maria More information about Thompson Mills Forest can be found at the UGA Warnell School of Forestry website. For photographs from this field trip, use the Photos link on this website.
|
