One Year Anniversary Gala

We finally pulled it off. Our January birthday party was cancelled due to ice. Our February birthday party was canceled due to snow.

But we nailed it on March 8--only to get rained out in the late afternoon.

18 people took a nature interpretive tour of the Plant with Amy from rewild within.

We had a few interesting "looks" on the red carpet. Candace was ticked that no one told her to wear a gown.

Arlo sold roasted chestnuts--and to everyone's delight the American Chestnut Foundation came

down from Asheville to table.

Karen Dinato's pear grafting was rained out. That was a drag. Apparently grafting in the rain increases the chance of introducing infection into the tree.

Nora was there. She's one of the writer's for Leaf and Limb. I feel like they have some of the best content on trees available right now.

There was music, and whiskey (Fair Game released its newly legal Wild Foraged Black Walnut).

Daniel was there from NC Black Walnuts. He made a syrup from the sap of some of our black walnut trees--the old fashioned way--steaming it down over an open fire. I always love seeing his operational improvements and innovation around black walnut.

It was great to converse with the Tree Museum's ReWilding squad--we've been

gathering on Saturday mornings to mechanically eradicate invasives in the new park on the other side of the fence. (Next session is this Saturday at 10:00 at the south gate behind Chatham Axes).

Perhaps best of all, Dave Klemp from Trees for the Triangle planted two bald cypress trees. Thank you, Dave.

It was a lot of positive tree energy going in all directions, and I'm looking forward to growing this event next year.

Our friends from the Haw River Assembly were there, tabling in the rain. They are coming back next month on the 26th to stage their Climate Action Fair. Grand Trees of Chatham also tabled in the rain, joined by Don from the New Hope Bird Alliance.

Shoutout to Soren Rademacher for the wonderful photos of the event.