magnificent trees,

most notably the grand live oaks that line roadways and make up a good part of the native canopy, are a well-known and much-loved element of the look and feel of the island. The beauties filter the air, provide welcome shade, furnish needed habitat for the area's pollinators, and supply a year-round elegance that is a part of the very definition of the island.

What visitors and residents may not be aware of, though, is the great lengths that are taken to maintain and preserve these natural wonders.

Cliff Gawron, the director of landscape and planning for the Jekyll Island Authority, and his team are charged with keeping the island looking beautiful and natural. When it comes to the trees of Jekyll, "Our primary focus is to preserve the overall native canopy which Jekyll is known for,"

Gawron says. "We try very hard not to have a net loss of live oaks on the island and our Tree Protection Ordinance affords the highest level of protection to our healthy live oaks. Other native trees are also afforded a level of protection as well." Those include red cedar, cabbage palms, bald cypress, bay magnolias, pond cypress, slash pines, and longleaf pines.

The trees on Jekyll face numerous challenges unique to the maritime forest of Georgia's barrier islands. Exposure to salt water and fresh water. Varying tides that lead to flooding followed by drought. Extreme temperatures.

But, according to Gawron, "the greatest challenges trees face on Jekyll include development pressures such as increased density on developed parcels and the impacts of humans; mainly compaction

SOUTHERN LIVE OAK (Quercus virginiana)

is the state tree of Georgia. The majestic oak can grow to 80 feet high with massive horizontal branches that can provide up to a 100-foot canopy.

to tree roots and the addition of active use areas in such close proximity to the trees."

By law, only 1,675 acres are designated for development on Jekyll Island, which helps Gawron and his team minimize the collateral impact to the island's trees. "Most of these impacts by themselves are minor," he says, "but when they occur cumulatively over time, they can have a significant impact on the overall health of a tree."

Once in a while Gawron and his team have to transplant large mature trees to keep them healthy and thriving. One of the primary challenges when digging and moving established trees is having sufficient room to execute the work. It's especially tricky when large equipment to dig out and move the root ball is necessary.

The work also requires a long-term commitment to the aftercare of the transplanted trees. Depending on where the tree is moved, Gawron's team uses either installed irrigation (not available in most locations) or a water truck (which can be both labor- and time-intensive) to keep the trees healthy.

Under ideal circumstances, Gawron and his crew root-prune trees a year before they're scheduled to be moved. They use a sharp spade to slice through roots, cutting them from 9 inches to a foot away from the base of the trunk for every inch in diameter of the tree. This encourages new feeder roots to grow so that when the tree is transplanted the fresh roots help the tree to acclimate more quickly to its new home.

Bald Cypress

(Taxodium distichum) is a long-lived deciduous cone-bearing tree that grows 50- to 70-feet tall and sometimes up to 100 feet. It grows in swamps or dry soils, and produces knobby growths above the roots that are called "knees."

Longleaf Pine

(Pinus palustris) has a species name that means "of the marshes." This pine grows in wet or dry soils. The showy seed cones mature in two years and are 6 to 10 inches long.

RED CEDAR (Juniperus virginiana)

is an evergreen sometimes columnar that makes a great windbreak and can tolerate high winds from 60-80 mph.

In reality, sometimes Gawron's team simply doesn't have the luxury to plan ahead. During the revitalization of the Beach Village and Convention Center in the fall of 2010, some 40 mature, live oaks had to be transplanted. The project began in September and was complete by Thanksgiving.

"The largest live oak we moved was a 37-inch dbh [diameter at breast height] tree. Of all the 40 trees that we moved, we only lost two," Gawron says. "Drip irrigation was installed for all of the trees that were moved. They were carefully monitored for the first two years and then periodically for the following three years after being transplanted."

And most recently, Gawron and his team replaced a dead Club-era cyprus tree with a young cyprus that was relocated from outside of Villa Ospo (pictured left). This new cyprus was carefully selected to ensure it could survive being transplanted and would match the aesthetic framing of the entrance to Crane Cottage.

In reforestation efforts on Jekyll, workers typically plant 4-inch diameter trees. They try to plant in cooler months, generally from the middle of October until late April, before trees bud and new growth starts for the next growing season. This reduces the stress put on the trees and allows them to focus their energy on establishing new roots.

SWEETBAY MAGNOLIA (Magnolia virginiana)

grows to 15-20 feet, mostly evergreen with lemony scented creamy white flowers in spring. Leaves are silver on the undersides.

"When we're planting in areas that are considered undeveloped, we focus exclusively on planting natives," Gawron says. In developed areas, non-natives are used as accents and to add seasonal color with plants like crape myrtles, loquat trees, Sylvester date palms, Italian cypress, and Arizona cypress. Even in developed areas, 70-75% of new plants on the island are native.

Gawron has come to the conclusion, over the years, that certain exotic trees should not be planted because of their weedy nature. The Pindo palm (Butia capitata) is known as the jelly palm for its edible gelatinous yellow fruits. The fruits spread easily and quickly and are a threat to the dunes and marsh. Another aggressive species to avoid—one that will crowd out natives—is the Camphor tree (Cinnamomum camphora). The seed is spread far and wide by birds. When it comes to invasive plants, the Chinese tallow (Triadica sebifera) is the most aggressive species. Gawron considers it Public Enemy No. 1 when it comes to invasive exotics on Jekyll Island.

The biggest threat to local trees, though, is not hungry developers, rowdy visitors, or runaway plants. "If the island were ever to be directly hit by a major hurricane," Gawron says, "the impacts would be overwhelming to most of the mature trees on the island."

When trees die or are damaged, Gawron and his team work with other tree-loving types to sustain a thriving maritime forest and natural green space around the island.

"The Jekyll Island Authority works closely with several organizations–Georgia Forestry, Garden Clubs of Georgia, and the Jekyll Island Foundation–that have provided funding through grants and donor gifts to further invest in reforestation of the island," he says. The JIA also invests fines from strict tree-ordinance violations back into planting expenses.

In 2017, the JIA began a new program to grow live oak and pine seedlings from existing trees. Since then, more than 1,230 new trees have been planted, and there are plans to plant another 100 mature ones by the end of June 2022.

Despite the challenges, and because of the work of many, Jekyll Island's stately canopy continues to thrive. Most impressively, it remains an enduring symbol of the place; beautiful and strong, a successful partnership of man and nature.

CABBAGE PALM (Sabal palmetto)

is highly salt-tolerant and has fragrant flowers. It's the source for palmetto honey.

Before the Allman Brothers Band hit the big time, there was a high school dance on Jekyll...

By SCOTT FREEMAN

n Friday, July 3, 1970, the Allman Brothers Band opened the threeday Atlanta Pop Festival at the Middle Georgia Raceway in Byron, taking the stage around 7 p.m. An estimated 300,000 people were packed together in the blazing Georgia heat, drawn to the Southern version of Woodstock and to hear headliners Jimi Hendrix, Procol Harum, 10 Years After, Mountain, Richie Havens, and B.B. King. Few in the audience were there specifically to see the Allman Brothers, and most didn't even know who they were. The band had underground followings from performances at fledgling rock concert venues in New York City, San Francisco, New Orleans, and Boston. And the Allmans had built a strong fan base in Atlanta through a series of free Sunday afternoon concerts in Piedmont Park. But a band that would grow into one of rock's most legendary groups was still largely unknown to the masses and scrambling just to survive. n fact, four weeks before the Atlanta Pop Festival, the Allman Brothers Band had played one of its more profitable shows of the first half of 1970; a party for the Glynn Academy senior class at Jekyll Island's Gould Auditorium. (Glynn Academy, one of the oldest high schools in the nation, is a public school in nearby Brunswick, Georgia.) hen Glynn Academy senior Robert Anderson became aware that the Allmans played high school gigs, he was determined to book them for the academy's senior night party. Like Herrin, Anderson had seen the Allman Joys in Daytona and Gainesville, and was a huge fan of the Allman Brothers Band. He and the senior class president happened to be in charge of the school's senior bash, where a party band called Leaves of Grass was scheduled to play.

"June 2, 1970 at Gould Auditorium, that was my first gig as their road manager," says William "Willie" Perkins, who became one of the group's longtime mainstays. "We made a thousand dollars, which was big at that point. High schools, fraternities, colleges, we hit them up pretty good. Back then, we averaged around five or six hundred dollars a night for most shows."

The Gould Auditorium show, for the few who witnessed it, showcased a band on the cusp of breaking through.

Duane Allman and his little brother, Gregg, were born in Nashville but spent most of their childhood in Daytona Beach. The two brothers first gained a musical following in northeast Florida in the mid-'60s with their band the Allman Joys. Duane and Gregg were teenagers when the band started, musicians with blazing talent but still working to hone their skills.

Bob Herrin, who would become the guitarist in Flood—a band based out of St. Simons Island—had a friend in Daytona who told him, "You've got to hear these guys." So Herrin drove to Daytona one weekend and was blown away by both brothers: Duane's command of the guitar and the power of Gregg's voice. "I heard them play on the pier in Daytona, and then in a little club," he says.

In March 1969, Duane and Gregg joined forces with four other musicians in Jacksonville to form the Allman Brothers Band. The band had two drummers, one of whom was Black, making the Allman Brothers the first interracial rock band from the South. The musicians moved to the sleepy city of Macon, where their manager, Phil Walden, was based. Walden guided the career of Otis Redding until the soul singer's death in a 1967 plane crash, and had shifted his focus to the world of rock and roll.

The Allman Brothers Band debut album—which featured such signature songs as "Whipping Post" and "Dreams"— was released that November and had gone largely unnoticed, initially selling just 34,000 copies. With concert venues and rock clubs few and far between in the Southeast, the band regularly played college fraternities and even high school dances during its hardscrabble early days.

"THEY LOOKED LIKE CONFEDERATE GENERALS RISEN FROM THE DEAD TO REDEEM THEMSELVES FOR SLAVERY AND THE CENTURY OF SOUTHERN OPPRESSION THAT FOLLOWED. 'WHIPPING POST' STRUCK ME AS EXISTENTIALLY POIGNANT. IT WAS CATHARTIC."

"The class president and I absconded with the funds for the senior party, ditched the sanctioned party band in favor of our last minute hire, the Allman Brothers Band," Anderson wrote in a Facebook post. "The football dudes wanted to murder us for shucking Leaves of Grass, a favorite of senior parties of the past, and moms and chaperones everywhere."

Herrin and members of Flood came over from St. Simons Island to see the Allman Brothers perform at Gould Auditorium. "We hung out with them outside the back door where they loaded in their gear," he says. "Gregg was doing a lot of drinking that night. We actually helped carry him onstage to his B-3 organ."

The members of Flood were among the few people outside Glynn Academy who witnessed the show. "There weren't a lot of people. It was a senior party," Herrin says.

For the uninitiated seniors, it must have been a culture shock when they heard the Allman Brothers Band fire up. There was no beach music to be heard, no familiar Beatles or Motown covers; this was hard core blues-based rock played at extremely high volume.

"It was a great concert," says Herrin. "I was surprised at how good they sounded. I was impressed with ‘Dreams' and Duane's sweet slide playing. I remember they did 'In Memory of Elizabeth Reed' and 'Whipping Post,' but I don't remember what else they played."

In his Facebook post, Anderson said bassist Berry Oakley wore a Confederate soldier's cap. "They looked like Confederate generals risen from the dead to redeem themselves for slavery and the century of Southern oppression that followed. 'Whipping Post' struck me as existentially poignant. It was cathartic."

About Gould Auditorium

Gould Auditorium was built in 1913 by Edwin Gould as a casino for members and guests of the Jekyll Island Club. In 1957, the structure was remodeled and converted into the Gould Auditorium. It served as the island's first convention center. It also played host to high school dances.

hree weeks later, Herrin and the members of Flood drove to Byron ahead of the Atlanta Pop Festival to try to talk their way onto the bill. There was a "free stage" set aside for local bands and for jam sessions, and Flood essentially took over there as the resident band.

In 1971, as the Allman Brothers had done at Piedmont Park, Flood set up one afternoon at the south end of Jekyll in the picnic area and played for free. "We had no permits, and we had a bunch of college kids show up," says Herrin. "We did it again in 1972. A couple of promoters got involved and all of a sudden, they were expecting 10,000 people. It really got out of hand and we didn't do it again after that."

Flood later signed a record deal and performed a big show at Jekyll's now-dormant amphitheater. Despite a critically lauded album, stardom didn't come for Flood.

These days, three of the original members, including Herrin, perform as Tie Dye Sunset around the Golden Isles. For the Allman Brothers, the Atlanta Pop Festival served as a springboard for the group to begin to take its place as one of the great American rock bands.

The Allmans opened the festival Friday night, then closed it early Monday morning. They played with muscle and finesse, and were the clear hit of the festival. The unreleased film of their performances is electrifying. The festival was a coming of age for the group, and the place where the Southern rock movement began to take root. In the last months of 1970, the band's popularity surged and a second album was released. Gigs at frat parties and high school dances were no longer necessary.

In fact, Perkins says, it's likely Gould Auditorium has a singular distinction: the site of the last high school dance the Allman Brothers Band ever played.

No set list exists for the June 2, 1970 Gould Auditorium performance. But based on shows from that time period, these are the likely songs performed by the Allman Brothers:

Statesboro Blues

Trouble No More

Don't Keep Me Wonderin' Dreams

Hoochie Coochie Man

Stormy Monday Blues In Memory of Elizabeth Reed

Whipping Post Mountain Jam