Rings on Lake Park Tree Tell a Tale Spanning 140 Years

Last week, the city cut down a large, dead tree on the northeast shore of Greenbelt Lake, which had started growing about 60 years before Greenbelt was founded. If you visit the stump of this double-trunked white oak tree, you can count 140 annual growth rings. The fact that this tree is doubletrunked means that it might not have sprouted from an acorn 140 years ago, but instead it may have started life as a pair of “stump sprouts” that grew out of the stump of an even earlier tree. This large tree is a reminder that at least part of Greenbelt was wooded even before the town was built. We know this because the Library of Congress has aerial photos from 1935 to 1937 that show many areas of Greenbelt with trees towering over the newly constructed townhomes. The forested areas in these photos extend to the shores of Greenbelt Lake and include parts of what is today the Forest Preserve between the BaltimoreWashington Parkway and the GHI woodlands east of Ridge Road.  For more on this story, click here.