This month we will again meet in person at the Ocean Park Rescue Squad(OPVRS) building located at 3769 E Stratford Rd, Virginia Beach, VA 23455.
Enter door opposite Shore Drive. We also have the option to participate in the meeting by Zoom. (Check email for details.)
Attached is the agenda for our next meeting on July 18, 2022 at 4:30 PM.
This month we are scheduled to host a special briefing from Lisa Deaton with the VA Department of Forestry which has recently started a live oak nursery at their facility in Charles City County.
Please come if you can – a higher than normal attendance would be a great way to let VDOF know how serious we are about our live oaks in Virginia Beach. As noted last month, our focus this summer has been on completing an inventory of live oaks that are present on City owned properties to identify areas where they do not currently exist so that our City’s official tree can be planted there. FOLO is also making plans to work with a commercial business to plant live oaks and recreate a demonstration maritime forest landscape that might promote other businesses to do the same. FOLO is continuing to search for potential grant funding that if approved will support this business project and also allow us to hold a live oak tree giveaway this fall. If you haven’t joined officially as a member, please consider doing so by paying dues for 2022 – details on how to do so are at our website: https://friendsofliveoaks.org/join-us/
At our last meeting, we requested members to send us photos including a description of location and why this live oak tree or group is special to you so we can share on our website and Facebook page – you can forward these to me. We are also looking for suggestions to add to our Live Oak Fact Sheet – a copy of the current fact sheet is attached. I am also sending along some interesting website links for more info on live oaks and trees in general:
https://tingen.law/2018/brief-overview-virginia-tree-law/27389/
https://www.hunker.com/12542585/how-to-age-a-live-oak-tree
https://www.lgcfinc.org/live-oak-society.html
http://sptreefarm.com/interesting-facts-about-live-oak-trees.html
https://www.americanforests.org/champion-trees/champion-trees-registry/
We hope you can join our meeting to add your input to the agenda and any other ideas you can share – such as how we can improve our website, and helping us build partnerships with other organizations. You can also learn more about pending tree legislation in the General Assembly this year, and read the recently completed State Study on tree protection at
https://rga.lis.virginia.gov/Published/2022/RD43 and also the tree legislation adopted by the General Assembly this session and signed into law by the Governor at
https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+sum+SB537.
