Walking tours around Snohomish all about city’s oldest trees
Published 1:30 am Saturday, September 30, 2017
SNOHOMISH — Big old trees.
How often have you tried to wrap your arms around the base of an ancient one? Or stared up to the top limbs until your neck hurt?
Whether they be natives or transplants, there’s something special about old trees.
Most people — even if they aren’t serious dendrophiles (tree huggers) — can’t help their affection for these kings of vegetation. Trees give us oxygen, absorb carbon dioxide, keep landscapes from sliding away and shelter wildlife. And people.
The land where the city of Snohomish is today was covered with virgin stands of cedar, fir and hemlock when lumber barons from Maine arrived about 175 years ago to cut them down.
The lumber mill owners stayed on and built houses on the hill above the river. And they planted trees next to their homes. Some were seedlings or grafts brought from the East Coast.
One of the city’s huge trees is a tall horse chestnut — Aesculus hippocastanum — (called a buckeye in Ohio) and is pictured here.
Since it’s Oktoberfest season, you might enjoy knowing that in Germany, horse chestnuts were revered for their dense canopies, and were planted to protect beer cellars from summer heat. These shady places then became known as beer gardens.
You can learn more about Snohomish’s huge horse chestnut during the Green Snohomish Group’s upcoming walking tour around town.
The tour also will celebrate the group’s publication of an updated version of the popular Trees of Snohomish Walking Guide brochure. Walk the self-guided tour anytime you wish, of course, but on Oct. 7 you can join fellow dendrophiles to check out and identify some the best big old trees in the Snohomish historic district.
A party and two guided tours are planned, starting at the corner of Cedar Avenue and Pearl Street near the old Carnegie Library Building. Donations for a cup of lobster bisque served by Fred’s Alehouse will be accepted to offset the printing costs of the brochure.
Led by knowledgeable guides, the tour takes about an hour. Extra brochures will be available.
If you go
Trees of Snohomish Walking Tours, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Oct. 7, from the intersection of Cedar and Pearl. For more information, email LyaBadgley@comcast.net.
