The Blue Ridge Discovery Center held their inaugural Amazing Trees of Charlottesville walk on Saturday at Quarry Park in Charlottesville. The amazing tree the group visited was a massive sycamore tree on the north bank of Moore's Creek.
On the walk, the group measured the height, circumference, and spread of the tree's crown. Children also made drawings and rubbings of the tree's leaves, flowers, and bark. BRDC President Devin Floyd hopes the hands on approach to learning will get the kids more engaged in the environment.
"The kids today took away ... a new and exciting way of learning outdoors, a very hands on artistic approach combined with scientific ethic. Combining the arts and sciences, you can tap into a lot of interests, you can really inspire a lot of people - kids in particular and you can actually produce meaningful data," explained Floyd.
The Amazing Tree program also includes a web interactive component. The BRDC developed a website for people who know of, or find trees that interest them, as well as, trees they think others should know about.
"We want to invite the community to come a join us and build a website of all of these trees so everybody can come and discover just all the beautiful trees of Charlottesville," said BRDC board member Dede Smith.
With Charlottesville's 20 plus parks, the group believes their visits will give attention to some of the lesser known parks. In addition, they want to draw attention to how trees affect the community's day to day life. From providing shade to being a child's favorite climbing tree, the group hopes people will start focusing on trees as being integral to their daily lives.
"Once you find a tree that's magnificent, you start seeing more and more trees and we hope people start telling us about where all those amazing trees are, so we can document and share them with the community," said Smith.
The families, with the help of Blue Ridge Discovery Center workers found some interesting statistics from the big Sycamore tree:
- The height was about 115 ft (+/- 10 ft) - The 5th largest registered in Virginia
- The canopy spread is the 2nd largest registered in Virginia
- Circumference was 184 inches
- The crown was 119 ft.
Reported by Duncan McKenna
The large sycamore in Quarry Park stands at 115 ft. tall.
Children measured the circumference, which came in at 184 in.
Children also made rubbings of leaves and bark.
Some children took a closer look at the flowers produced by the tree and tried to draw what they saw.
