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Ringo. “We get groups together and go to parks and nature areas and hike.”

Murphy pointed out one of the older trees – a white oak approximately 75 years old. Adloo said such a tree supports as many as 500 species.

“Just having one in a wide-open area is benefiting so much around it. Not to say the other trees aren’t, but the white oaks are like that,” she said.

A new wing of arboriculture is called “conservation arboriculture” that deals with maintaining older trees, veteran trees and ancient trees.

Murphy explained that an ancient tree is one that is old for its species, and preserving and maintaining them are highly beneficial for other plants and wildlife. “And they’re also much more efficient at doing what they do, which is pulling carbon dioxide out of the air and pushing oxygen back out,” he said. “For every one old tree, you’d have to have hundreds and hundreds of smaller trees around, so the conservation of these older trees is very important.”

There aren’t many old-growth forests around, according to Adloo, who said only 1% of what once was, has been removed.

“And that’s why it’s so urgent to make sure that we have even younger forests set aside to age into that old growth character and all those benefits,” she said.

Crossing through the strip of the property that carries the power lines, Murphy responded to an earlier comment by one of the guests about why there were so few white oaks if this property had been preserved for that particular tree.

“Well, here we are on the other side of the powerlines. And this is where the majority of the white oaks are,” he said. “You can’t throw a rock here without hitting one.”

Having reached the end of the navigable trail, Nagid turned the group around for the return trip.

Unbeknownst to several of the group members who were ahead of them, two people trailing behind were literally getting a head start on Earth Day cleanup. By the time they reached the cars, Jerri Dipietro and Vera Shoaff had two barrels and a bucket overflowing with bottles, plastic, cans, trash and a pipe.

“This is virgin property, and nobody’s been out here to clean it up,” said Dipietro, “so whatever has been blown into or thrown into or dropped is here. I do (this) whenever there’s an opportunity for a trash pickup.”

As Nagid told the group at the beginning of the hike, there is much work to be done before the park can be opened to the public, including generating plans and finding grants to help fund any construction. As part of both the passive parks program and the Old-Growth Forest Network, the property will provide green space that will be protected from lumbering for perpetuity, as per the Beaufort County Council.

“I hope all of you by coming on this walk, it has given you a new pair of glasses to see a forest thoroughly so you can see the beauty in a dead tree or the defects of a tree,” said Adloo. “You can start to recognize the diversity in the plants and the sounds that an older forest will give you when you’re walking on that much thicker leaf and mulch layer.”