February 8th, 2020

This Week's Tour...
...met at new, winter months' time 10:00AM Saturday on the Beltline Eastside Trail near Parish. We walked for 1 1/2 hours, covering 1 mile of the Beltline, ending at Ponce City Market.

"The Tourists"...
...shouting out to this week's tour group, the 6 hearty souls that joined me in the wintery mix to tour the arboretum. YOWZA!

Thanks for a great tour!

Map of the week...
At the intersection of the Beltline Eastside Trail and Freedom Parkway, we talked about the land cleared of 100's of houses along the proposed route. Some of that land became Freedom Parkway (north to Ponce and east to Moreland), while other land past the Parkway became the greenspaces we know and love today; John Howell Park, Sidney Marcus Park, and Freedom Park.

"I-485"

(Thanks, Wikipedia!)

Tree of the week...
...singling out one of the hundreds of specimens from the dozens of collections along the arboretum.

February's tour continued on the theme of "marcescence", the process by which tree leaves die, but stay on the branch until spring. Beech is still my favorite...so much so I drew it!

Fagus grandifolia

American Beech

"Stump" of the week...
...featuring a question raised during the tour that Jeff couldn't answer.

Q: How much longer are we going to keep walking in the snow?

A: EASY! About 10 minutes less than we normally take for the tour. Thanks for joining me and I hope you stayed warm and dry for the rest of the day!

"Raw" Beltline Trail in Piedmont Park, 

looking north, just north of Park Drive

January 11th, 2020

This Week's Tour...
...met at new, winter months' time 10:00AM Saturday on the Beltline Eastside Trail near Parish. We walked for 1 1/2 hours, covering 1 mile of the Beltline, ending at Ponce City Market.

"The Tourists"...
...shouting out to this week's tour group, the 9 enthusiastic souls (out of 30 sign-ups!) that braved the occasional sprinkle to help make this tour super fun!

Thanks for a great tour!

Map of the week...
At the intersection of the Beltline Eastside Trail and Freedom Parkway, we talked about I-485, with tour members correctly calling out that its proposed development help spur the creation of many neighborhood groups to fight against it (most of which still exist today as part of the NPU process to deliver citizen opinion to city council proposals). While many homes were acquired by the GDOT and razed (500+ by some accounts), a successful citizen campaign helped negotiate new endpoints for the proposed roadways at Ponce and North Avenue, keeping the majority of Candler Park, Virginia Highland, Morningside, and Decatur neighborhoods intact.

"I-485"

(Thanks, Wikipedia!)

Tree of the week...
...singling out one of the hundreds of specimens from the dozens of collections along the arboretum.

On this month's tour, because there are so few deciduous trees that retain their leaves throughout winter, we talked about those do, a characteristic known as "marcescence". Many species of oaks retain their leaves, but my personal favorite is the beech, whose beautiful coppery leaves can be seen throughout the forest understory, fluttering in the winter wind until abscission causes them to drop the dead leaves in the spring.

Fagus grandifolia

American Beech

"Stump" of the week...
...featuring a question raised during the tour that Jeff couldn't answer.

Q: What do you know about that park on the westside that will be bigger than Piedmont?

A: That would be the new Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry! It's not yet open to the public, but a great way to see it (from outside the construction fence) is by walking the Proctor Creek Greenway.  

Proctor Creek Greenway

Bellwood Quarry

(Thanks, Path Foundation!)