Three Delaware forests were inducted into the national Old Growth Forest Network as part of last week’s observance of Arbor Day.
Parts of Brandywine Creek State Park in Wilmington, the Fork Branch Nature Preserve in Dover and the Nanticoke River Nature Preserve outside Seaford joined the national Network Friday.
This makes Delaware the first state with a dedicated Old Growth Forest Network tract in every county. But other states, such as Pennsylvania and Ohio, have more designated forests than Delaware does, according to Network founder and director Joan Maloof.
The New Castle County native says the tracts in Delaware qualified because they are preserved and open to the public.
She describes the Tulip Tree Woods Nature Preserve in Brandywine Creek State Park as “very impressive.”
“It has these giant tulip poplar trees,” she said. “Also the wildflower diversity on the forest floor was quite surprising to me ... There were trilliums in bloom, there were spring beauties, there were toothwort.”
She says Tulip Tree Woods has been undisturbed for 200 years.
The Tulip Tree Woods may have the oldest trees, but the Anne M. McClements Woodland Tract in Dover has the best story.
It was once owned by a developer who planned to clear-cut it. But Maloof says the huge Beech trees eventually grew on him.
“By the end of his life, he realized that he didn’t want to knock that forest down for a housing development,” she said. “Instead he wanted it preserved. So he made an arrangement to sell it to the state of Delaware at a very discounted price.”
Two smaller “community forests” were also dedicated last week at Thomas Redd Park in Newark and in Arden.
Designation by the Old Growth Forest Network is purely honorary, and doesn’t come with any legal or financial benefits.
To be designated, forests don’t need to be “old growth,” but need to be preserved and open to the public.
