OAK ISLAND — To an unsuspecting eye, it may appear trees have fared well here despite hurricanes and crop rows of houses built on this barrier island over the past couple of decades.
Pines and curvy-limbed live oaks seemingly pepper the landscape on the 12-mile-long island in Brunswick County.
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But an inventory of mature live oaks and longleaf pines on town property completed a little more than a year ago revealed that not all is what it seems. The tree canopy that provides respite from scorching summer days and slows wind speeds whipped up during powerful coastal storms has depleted since the mid-2000s.
The town had 59% tree canopy cover, or nearly 7,100 of its 12,000 acres, according to a 2022 assessment, one that has helped shepherd a townwide effort to protect its existing trees and plant hundreds more.
Oak Island’s Tree Preservation Project has prompted the implementation of local rules that require property owners and builders get approval before cutting down any tree, protects hundreds of what are known as heritage live oaks and longleaf pines (those near or at 100 years old), removes Bradford pears on public land and replaces them with new live oaks, and adds hundreds more live oaks to the island.
“We’re going to grow this program,” said Brice Taylor, the town’s stormwater administrator.
He’s eager for that to happen. There is something special, arguably majestic, about old live oak trees with their broad crowns and gnarly branches stoically bowing to the earth.
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On a recent, mild February morning, Taylor propped on the tailgate of a pickup truck parked to one side of a street where a Southport-based landscaping crew readied to plant more than two dozen live oaks.
The trees arrive in 25-gallon plastic pots, each stand about 12 feet tall, and are a mere five years old. In time, they’ll grow to what town officials envision as an arch-like canopy, or as one town employee put it, a “tunnel of love” over Oak Island Drive, the main thoroughfare on the island.
This is the latest round of what will be 200 plantings this year along street rights-of-way and town-owned land.
Last year, 100 young live oaks were plugged into the landscape. They are of different varieties with names like George Washington, Hoggard and Wrightsville Beach.
The trees have sprouted from acorns and carefully grown at Penderlea Farms in Burgaw, a town roughly an hour north of the island.
Because the trees are locally sourced, they’ll be more resilient to the southeastern North Carolina climate.
As the trees grow, they’ll form an intricate system of roots that act as super absorbent sponges, soaking up rainfall in a manner that helps reduce flooding.
To ensure the young live oaks consistently get enough to drink, the town has watering bags installed around each tree.
Each bag holds 20 gallons of water, which is time released into the soil at the tree’s base. The bags get refilled every five days in the summer and every four days throughout cooler months.
“It’s a very efficient way of watering,” said Bryan Whitworth, owner of GreenMan Landscape Design & Maintenance, which is planting the trees.
That’s important because watering the trees is expensive.
The town is preparing to launch an adopt-a-tree program in the next couple of weeks where participants will take over responsibility from the town and fill the watering bags.
It’s a program that is expected to be well received in a community that has by and large supported protecting and expanding the town’s tree canopy.
Taylor said a little more than 92% of lots on the island are constructed out, a testament to the growth that has occurred here.
If a property owner wants to remove a tree from his or her land, that person is required to submit a free-of-charge permit application to the town for approval.
The town encourages property owners to remove Bradford pears from their land. These weak-limbed trees are an invasive species, one that’s being targeted by a collaborative of state agencies through a program called N.C. Bradford Pear Bounty.
This program offers a one-to-one tree exchange (one replacement tree for one Bradford pear) to qualifying property owners.
More than 20 Bradford pears have been removed from Oak Island town-owned land.
Since the Oak Island Town Council adopted Town Ordinance Chapter 32: Vegetation in mid-March last year, the town has issued $8,000 in ordinance-related violations.
If a property owner wants to plant a tree, he is allowed to choose from a list of 13 species preapproved by the town.
Oak Island is a Tree City USA, an honor the National Arbor Day Foundation bestowed it 25 years ago.
This year’s Arbor Day celebration will kick off with a tree ceremony 4-5 p.m. April 25 in Bill Smith Park. The following day, the town will announce the name selected from its name-the-tree contest for the park’s main attraction, a live oak estimated to be between 200-260 years old.
“We’re working really hard to ensure (Oak Island’s) not just a name, it’s an observation,” said town communications manager Mike Emory.
