
DATE: Monday, September 22, 1997            TAG: 9709220086

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER  

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   77 lines

BEACH: GIFT MAY GROW INTO URBAN FOREST

A huge oak tree, 17 feet in circumference, stands alone, unsurpassed by smaller trees in a 100-acre forest in the triangle where West Neck Creek and Harpers Ditch meet, not far from Oceana Naval Air Station.

The stately tree near the creek banks escaped loggers years ago and now towers above the young trees growing in its shadow. It stands as an example of what the smaller trees might look like some day if allowed to grow undisturbed, said developer Dickie Foster.

Foster, who owns Baymark Construction Corp., has taken an unusual step that may allow the young trees to grow to maturity.

He recently donated the land to a fledgling group named The 500 Year Forest Foundation, which hopes to acquire and preserve forested land in urban settings in Virginia and elsewhere on the East Coast.

The 500 Year Forest is the brain child of Ted Harris, a retired Lynchburg businessman and a member of the Virginia Urban Forest Council. The council, of which Foster is a member, is a private, nonprofit organization that promotes the value of trees.

The group's concept is modeled after England's Woodland Trust, founded in 1972 to conserve that nation's trees, said Harris. He is serving as chairman of an Urban Forest Council committee that is seeking tax-exempt, nonprofit status for the foundation so it can raise an initial $10 million to maintain the forests.

If the foundation's dreams come true, in five years it will have more than 100 forests in Virginia and elsewhere that will be managed with the goal of preserving them for the future. ``We want to manage them in the highest interest of the forests,'' Harris said.

The land will be there so future generations in urban settings will have the opportunity to watch a forest grow. And many, many generations from now will know a forest full of trees as ancient as that overcup oak in Foster's forest.

Foster's land is part of 400 acres or so that he purchased for more than $10 million several years ago. Now he is developing Castleton, a residential community off London Bridge Road on 300 of those acres, but the adjacent forest is not part of Castleton's recreational and open-space amenities.

``It's a perfect example of an urban forest,'' Foster said. ``It's only a couple of miles from Lynnhaven Mall.''

It will be open to the public, and Foster plans to construct trails, overlooks and perhaps an education center. Visitors will be able to walk under red maples, sweet gum and other hardwood trees and see the varied topography of the land from wetlands along the creeks to high land in the interior.

Ferns and wildflowers grow in the understory. Some rare species of wildflowers include the least trillium and yellow-fringed orchid, said naturalist Vicky Shufer, who surveyed the area for plant species.

Meanwhile, the old overcup oak, named for the way its acorn cup encloses nearly all of the nut, may not make it for another 400 years, but today it stands as the beacon for ancient forests of the future. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos

PHILIP HOLMAN

A giant overcup oak looms above a hundred acres of wooded land given

by a developer to The 500 Year Forest Foundation.

The foundation tries to preserve land in urban settings, allowing

such flowers as the tickseed, or coreopsis, to flourish.

Photo

PHILIP HOLMAN

Environmental engineer Wayne McCoy walks by a patch of ferns in an

area targeted to become an urban woodland. A preservation group's

project would offer the public a place to watch a forest grow.

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