Photograph by Virginie Kippelen
What makes you get up one morning and be impressed to guard the historic timber round your property? Daniel Solberg, a longtime Edgewood resident and member of Organized Neighborhoods of Edgewood, does not have a definitive reply. “For some motive, I felt prefer it was time,” he says. “It was nearly religious, like a calling you do not fairly perceive.”
Within the weeks following his epiphany, Solberg, together with fellow neighborhood group member Kelly Draper, invested hours of volunteer work to guard 4 outdated timber on privately owned land positioned on Vaughn Road within the Edgewood neighborhood on Atlanta’s east facet.
The timber — three white oaks and one southern crimson oak — have a compelling case for preservation. All are dated to be over 200 years outdated, making them witnesses to the historic Battle of Atlanta on July 22, 1864. However their chief achievement could also be their sheer survival after a long time of city growth. Atlanta is shedding timber at an alarming price, regardless of being dubbed the “metropolis within the forest”: A 2018 research discovered that the town misplaced .43 acres per day over the previous decade. And though the town of Atlanta has a tree ordinance that requires permits to chop sure timber, it doesn’t present particular protections for historic timber.
4 towering oaks inhabit a leafy six-acre lot identified informally as Vaughn Road Park, a big, fascinating lot in a quickly gentrifying space between Jose L. Williams Drive to the north and Memorial Drive to the south. The land surrounding Sugar Creek is generally overgrown with kudzu and different invasive vegetation; For greater than 15 years, the property has been slated for growth however nonetheless stays a wild inexperienced area.
Photograph by Virginie Kippelen
One of many 4 majestic timber, a white oak that stands on a low-grade hill, has the excellence of being the biggest of its species in metro Atlanta, as measured by its diameter: 69 inches at breast top, a typical measure of tree dimension by Solberg and Draper. It was thought to derive its identify Alba from the Latin identify for white oak. Quercus alba. To save lots of Alba and her neighbors, they launched an advocacy group referred to as Meet Alba.
Mit alba doesn’t search to ban any growth on forested properties. Slightly, the group favors a steadiness between conservation and accountable growth. In response to the web site, Meet Alba members wish to present that “it’s attainable for builders to understand income whereas preserving historic timber via consciously chosen inexperienced areas.” They envision the property changing into a conservation village, an up-and-coming designation that protects a bit of land’s historic or environmental worth by limiting development to 50 p.c of the floor panorama. Solberg stated the present proprietor of the land has “proven openness to conservation efforts,” providing a ray of hope that the timber might survive the event.
Invoice Jones, founder and government director of the Southeastern Belief for Parks and Land, a marketing consultant he works with, additionally believes preservationists and builders “want to start out working collectively.” Their strategy may help construct neighborhood and join individuals, Jones stated. “All of us moved from all these totally different locations and got here to Atlanta, so the place can we put our roots down a little bit bit?”
This text appeared in our January 2025 situation.
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