2010 High Tree Party
- April 23, 2010
- Thistle Farms,
104 Belle Meade Blvd. - 43 champion trees recognized
Party Gallery
Winners Gallery
List of Winners
2009 Party
Victor Johnson
Award Winners
2010 Betty Brown
2009 Warner Bass
2008 Joe Thompson
2007 Martin Brown
2006 No Award
2005 May Dean Eberling
2004 Randall Lantz
2003 Jim Fyke
2002 George H. Cate Jr.
2001 Armistead Barkley
1998 H.G. Hill Realty
1997 Carl Pitchford
1996 Ann Chapman
1995 Victor Johnson
Nashville Tree Foundation works to preserve and enhance Nashville's urban forest by educating the public, planting trees in urban areas, identifying the oldest and largest trees in Davidson County, and designating arboretums.
Tree Party honors big trees, Betty Brown
Fifty tree lovers gathered April 23 beneath a giant pine to celebrate the 23rd annual Big Old Tree Contest.
Judge Robin Bible described 43 winners including the 72-foot white pine he stood beneath. Winners and nominators received certificates.
The Tree Foundation honored founding president Betty Brown with the Victor Johnson Award. MORE
The party was on the grounds of the former rectory of St. George’s Episcopal Church, 104 Belle Meade Boulevard. The site is also headquarters of the non-profit Magdalene/Thistle Farms ministry, which rescues women off the streets of Nashville and helps them recover from abuse and addiction.
Everyone enjoyed tree-related foods including black walnut banana muffins and pecan strawberry bread with fruits, nuts, and, of course, tea.
The Big Old Tree Contest is held every spring to create an inventory of the biggest trees in Davidson County. The Tree Foundation has recognized more than 500 champions in the past 23 years.
Betty Brown receives Victor Johnson Award
President Pat Wallace presents founder Betty Brown a handcrafted oak bowl in honor of her Victor Johnson Award.
Nashville Tree Foundation honored founding president Betty Brown today with the Victor Johnson Award for her foresight and leadership in preserving and enhancing Nashville’s urban forest.
The award is named for the late president and chief executive officer of Aladdin Industries for his impact on Nashville’s landscape by setting the standards for tree-friendly developers. He was instrumental in the formation of the Tree Foundation in 1986.
“Betty Brown’s contributions to the city she has called home since 1965 are many and varied but it is for her leadership and dedication to the environment that we honor her today,” said last year’s award winner Warner Bass, a founder of Friends of Warner Parks in 1987.
After working with a committee that planted 1,986 trees for Homecoming ’86 as part of Davidson County’s participation in the state’s bicentennial celebration, she realized many, many people loved trees, Bass said. “And that led her to form and become president of the Nashville Tree Foundation that same year with the goal of preserving and enhancing Nashville’s urban forest.
“When a disastrous tornado leveled 20,000 trees in our city in 1998, the Tree Foundation formed ReLeaf Nashville within days,” Bass recounted. “Under her leadership, the Foundation raised a million dollars in six months, recruited volunteers, and replanted 6,757 trees in four years, a year ahead of schedule.”
She and Foundation volunteers continue to plant trees in Nashville’s neighborhoods for ReLeafing Day on the Saturday before Thanksgiving every year.
Bass presented her with a handcrafted wooden bowl from a branch of the Bicentennial Oak tree on the Vanderbilt campus, a bur oak that is more than 250 years old and a winner in the 1990 Big Old Tree Contest.