The Old Forest Arboretum of Overton Park (172 acres) is a forest tract and
natural
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are p ...
arboretum
An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...
located in
Overton Park :''Overton Park may also refer to the U.S. Supreme Court case, Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe''
Overton Park is a large, public park in Midtown Memphis, Tennessee. The park grounds contain the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis Z ...
,
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
. It is open to the public daily without charge. The forest was placed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1979 as part of the
Overton Park Historic District :''Overton Park may also refer to the U.S. Supreme Court case, Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe''
Overton Park is a large, public park in Midtown Memphis, Tennessee. The park grounds contain the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis Z ...
. Tree identification began in 1997, with some 70 tree species identified by 2002 when it was certified as an arboretum.
Today the arboretum contains walking trails with 49 tree markers identifying 32 species. Approximately three-fourths of the Arboretum was designated as the Old Forest State Natural Area in 2011.
History
Conservation of the Old Forest began in 1901, when Overton Park was created when the Lea Woods was purchased by the city of Memphis. of its original
climax
Climax may refer to:
Language arts
* Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work
* Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance
Biology
* Climax community, a biological community th ...
oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...
-
hickory
Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes around 18 species. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam), as many as twelve are native to the United States, four are found in Mexi ...
cover was preserved as the Old Forest.
In 1912, the area was described as follows:
Plant taxonomist Dr. Tom Heineke was hired by Memphis to inventory the Old Forest during 2008 and 2009.
Large trees measured for possible inclusion as Tennessee Champion Trees included a ( DBH)
black cherry
''Prunus serotina'', commonly called black cherry,World Economic Plants: A Standard Reference, Second Edition'. CRC Press; 19 April 2016. . p. 833–. wild black cherry, rum cherry, or mountain black cherry, is a deciduous tree or shrub of the g ...
, a 46-inch
southern red oak
''Quercus falcata'', also called southern red oak, spanish oak, bottomland red oak or three-lobed red oak is an oak (part of the genus ''Quercus''). Native to the southeastern United States, it gets its name the "Spanish Oak" as these are the ar ...
, a 62-inch
shumard oak
''Quercus shumardii'', the Shumard oak, spotted oak, Schneck oak, Shumard red oak, or swamp red oak, is one of the largest of the oak species in the red oak group (''Quercus'' section ''Lobatae''). It is closely related to ''Quercus buckleyi'' (T ...
, and 9-inch pawpaw. A total of 332 flowering plant species were recorded in 85 families; three-quarters of the species were native. Heineke's management recommendation was removal of
evergreen
In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...
exotic species
An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there ...
, such as
Chinese privet
''Ligustrum sinense'' (Chinese privet; syn. ''L. villosum''; in Mandarin: 杻; pinyin: chǒu) is a species of privet native to China, Taiwan and Vietnam,Flora of China''Ligustrum sinense''/ref> and naturalized in Réunion, the Andaman Islands, ...
and
Japanese honeysuckle
''Lonicera japonica'', known as Japanese honeysuckle and golden-and-silver honeysuckle, is a species of honeysuckle native to eastern Asia. It is often grown as an ornamental plant, but has become an invasive species in a number of countries. Jap ...
, which are severely competing with native vegetation.
Tennessee State Natural Area status
On June 8, 2011, Governor
Bill Haslam
William Edward Haslam (; born August 23, 1958) is an American billionaire businessman and politician who served as the 49th governor of Tennessee from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, Haslam previously served as the 67th mayor of ...
signed the Old Forest State Natural Area bill into law, designating 126 of the Arboretum's 172 acres as Tennessee's 82nd State Natural Area. The Natural Areas Program is run by the
Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation
The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) is a Cabinet-level agency within the government of the U.S. state of Tennessee, headed by the Tennessee Commissioner of Environment and Conservation.
The Department of Conservation ...
, while the natural areas themselves are often not TDEC property and are generally managed through cooperative agreements with other agencies and organizations. The bill creating the State Natural Area originally designated ''142'' acres for protection. To ease opposition from Memphis Mayor A C Wharton and
Memphis Zoo
The Memphis Zoo, located in Midtown, Memphis, Tennessee, United States, is home to more than 3,500 animals representing over 500 different species. Created in April 1906, the zoo has been a major tenant of Overton Park for more than 100 years. Th ...
officials, 14 acres of forest adjacent to the zoo were removed from the protective area."Legislature Protects Overton Park Forest" 'The Commercial Appeal', May 21, 2011; accessed August 9, 2011.
Environmental threats
During the development of
Interstate 40
Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...
through Memphis in the 1960s, 26 acres of the Old Forest were slated to be destroyed to make way for the new highway, which would have also severed the
Memphis Zoo
The Memphis Zoo, located in Midtown, Memphis, Tennessee, United States, is home to more than 3,500 animals representing over 500 different species. Created in April 1906, the zoo has been a major tenant of Overton Park for more than 100 years. Th ...
from the rest of Overton Park. A grassroots organization, the
Citizens to Preserve Overton Park Citizens to Preserve Overton Park (CPOP) is a nonprofit advocacy group founded in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1957. CPOP is best known for its success at preventing the extension of Interstate 40 through Overton Park adjacent to the Memphis Zoo, through ...
, rallied to protect the forest. In ''
Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe
''Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe'', 401 U.S. 402 (1971), is a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that established the basic legal framework for judicial review of the actions of administrative agencies. It subs ...
'' the
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
finally saved the Old Forest from highway construction plans in 1971. In 1987, the Tennessee Department of Transportation
deed
In common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions, sealed. It is commonly associated with transferring ...
ed the 26-acre corridor back to the City of Memphis.
In 2008, the Memphis Zoo
clear-cut
Clearcutting, clearfelling or clearcut logging is a forestry/ logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Along with shelterwood and seed tree harvests, it is used by foresters to create certain types of fore ...
to make way for a new exhibit, Teton Trek. The destruction sparked the revival of CPOP to prevent further expansion of the zoo into the Old Forest.