A grove of three Douglas fir trees on North Ninth Street received official Heritage Tree designation from the Philomath City Council on Monday night.
The council unanimously approved a resolution granting the status to the trees located at 146 N. Ninth St.
“Two applications were received this year for Heritage Tree consideration,” said Chelsea Starner, assistant city manager. “One was this grove of trees that was considered previously and they this year thought that it met the criteria and was an excellent specimen of trees to be granted Heritage Tree status.”
The trees were nominated by Giana Bernardini and are located on property owned by Dave Wills.
According to nomination documents, the trees are believed to have been planted in 1886 in front of a historic house on the property and feature trunks measuring approximately 4-1/2 feet in diameter. The Douglas fir — Oregon’s state tree — can grow to 300 feet tall, reach 8 feet in diameter and live 500 to 1,000 years.
“The timber is known worldwide, and Philomath prospered in large part due to its harvest,” Bernardini’s nomination form reads. “These large handsome trees … are only getting started. The enormous split trunks create interesting variation in form.”
A second nomination, for a blue spruce at Peace Lutheran Church on Applegate Street, was not approved this year for the special designation by the Heritage Tree Board. That tree was planted in 2013 in memory of Spc. Cody Patterson, a Philomath High School graduate from the Class of 2007 who was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2013.
The Heritage Tree program was established in 2022 to recognize trees of community significance. Nominations are reviewed annually by the Heritage Tree Board, which includes three city councilors, two Tree Board members and two additional volunteers.
