April 22, 2025

Earth Day 2025: Get to Know the Trees of Fernbank Forest

In 1970, a senator from Wisconsin organized a sit-in demonstration on school campuses to raise awareness about environmental issues. It was held on April 22, and this demonstration led to what is now known as Earth Day.  Since that Wisconsin sit-in, we've seen many acts that have been passed to protect our environment such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act in the United States. By 1990, Earth Day was celebrated by more than 140 countries.

There are many small things you can do in your daily life to celebrate Earth Day and help the environment year-round. You can recycle, reduce and reuse resources; conserve water; buy less plastic and use reusable bags at the grocery store; and choose non-toxic chemicals for cleaning to help reduce the amount of toxicity in the watershed.

You can also volunteer! Fernbank offers opportunities to help protect the environment, such as volunteering with our forest restoration efforts to restore the native habitats in Fernbank Forest.

Did You Know? 
About 48% of the metro Atlanta area is covered in trees and the city is affectionately called a “city in the forest.” Trees are an important part of our ecosystem; they provide food and oxygen, help save energy, and clean the air. 

Fernbank Forest, a 65-acre old-growth forest, and WildWoods, the 10-acre woodland area directly behind the museum that precedes Fernbank Forest, are home to multiple types of trees, some of which are detailed below. See how many you can find on your next trip!

L: Beech Tree by Peter Essick; R: PawPaw Tree by Fernbank Staff

Beech Tree
Identifiable by their smooth gray bark, these trees keep the majority of their leaves until March. They wait to put on new growth until there is an opening in the canopy, so older trees can appear much smaller.

Pawpaw Tree
Native trees that form dense colonies that share a common root system, Pawpaws have maroon flowers that emerge in early spring and grow a soft fruit that only lasts a few days before spoiling.

L: Shortleaf Pine Trees by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; R: Tuliptree by Randi Hausken from Bærum, Norway, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Shortleaf Pine Tree
The dominant pine species in Fernbank Forest, some of our trees pre-date the American Civil War! Shortleaf Pine can grow to nearly 140 feet and have shorter needles and cones than the Loblolly Pine.

Tuliptree
Also known as tulip poplars or yellow poplars, these trees make up 20% of the trees in Fernbank Forest. They have light-colored wood and flowers that are reminiscent of tulips, and are the tallest, oldest and largest of any of the species located here.

L: Dcrjsr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; R: Chris Breeze at Flickr, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

White Oak Tree
These trees can live hundreds of years and are known to support as many as 900 different species of caterpillars. The acorns of the white oak trees were a staple of Native American groups that lived in the area, including the Muscogee (Creek) and Cherokee.

Eastern Hemlock
The eastern hemlock is one of only two species of hemlock native to eastern North America. They shed their lower branches as they grow taller, and have needles and cones that measure less than half an inch.

Next time you’re in WildWoods or Fernbank Forest, look for signs to help you identify some of the trees that make up the understory and canopy of the forest. There are also other informational signs posted to help you identify the flora and fauna you might see!

Join us on a guided hike through Fernbank Forest in the morning or at dusk to discover all the wonders of our forest! Interested in Volunteering? See the Volunteer page for more information.