Eastern Native Tree Society

The Native Tree Society has been in formal existence since 1996. That's 20 years. It had an "informal rise" dating back to 1993, but became "official" when the University of Arkansas Tree-Ring Laboratory established a website for us. The present BBS has been in existence since March 2010, and most people who know of NTS, know it through this BBS an... d associated website - a lasting legacy of the one and only Ed Frank. I often reflect on what Ed created for us and his endless hours of work over the trees. Our mission in NTS remains the celebration of trees in science, sport, art, photography, poetry, music, medicine, wood working, mythology, climbing, spirituality, etc. We purposely do not include activities that utilize wood as a raw resource such as furniture, construction, paper, etc. where trees lose their identities as important life forms in service to the Earth as opposed to satisfying our material needs. We're not against the latter uses. We all benefit from them, but their associated activities are not what NTS is about, and we've had to reinforce that point on occasion. In the past, we allowed ourselves to stray into the environmental - forestry wars and that almost destroyed NTS. Ed came to the rescue, and we've pretty much stayed on message since. A prominent function of NTS over the years has been to develop tree-measuring methods that avoid the deficiencies of the traditional ones. As a consequence of that and my affiliation with American Forests, it was inevitable that a connection would develop between AF and NTS to allow us to share our methods with AF. Our basic objective was to enhance AF's Big Tree Program. The NTS-AF connection in 2013, and as a result, NTS members make up the AF Measuring Guidelines Working Group (MGWG). Also, in 2013, Don Bertolette conceived of the idea of an elite tree-mesuring cadre assigned directly to AF that would function to certify national champions, train tree measurers, develop measuring methods, and act as consultants to the state programs. Big Don's vision, ...Read More