Trees Lexington

Last week, our staff attended a virtual awards reception for the 2026 Good Works Program grant awards. We’re TREE-mendously excited to announce that the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels have awarded Trees Lexington a $10,000 grant towards the purchase of our very first truck! Through the Kentucky Colonels’ Good Works Program, 316 Kentucky nonprofits were awarded $2.6 million to further their mission.

A huge and heartfelt THANK YOU to the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels and their trustees for providing Trees Lexington this incredible level of support. Having a truck will be a true game changer for our team, the trees under our care, and those we’ve yet to plant.

The June Tree of the Month is the oldest cross-dated documented tree in Kentucky, and it lives in a corner of Fayette County. We know its age because its rings have been counted and their pattern of thick and thin rings matched to nearby trees of the same species.

It is so old that it has a name: Woody C. Guthtree, and a page: https://www.facebook.com/woody.guthtree/. The “C” stands for chinkapin because the tree is a chinkapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii). This year it turned 415 years old.
Long before Daniel Boone set foot in the state, it was growing on a southwest-facing slope along Elk Lick Creek in what is now the Floracliff Nature Sanctuary, a 346-acre non-profit preserve that borders the Kentucky River.

The chinkapin, also spelled chinquapin, is a deciduous species of tree in the white oak group. It is native to eastern and central North America. The thing about Woody is that, for its age, it’s not what one would describe as “a mighty oak.” But sometimes appearances can be deceiving.

When Floracliff director Beverly James asked an Eastern Kentucky University professor named Neil Pederson to take core samples of chinkapins in 2008, he thought they might not be very old. When he cored and counted tree rings, he found 10 that dated from the 1600s (one dated to 1697 was lost last year) and four from the 1700s. Woody’s earliest ring was dated 1611.

“It was the one that knocked me in the head and made me think differently about things,” said Pederson, now a Massachusetts-based private contractor.

Seeing Woody in person will take planning. To preserve its delicate ecology, Floracliff is only open to guided walks. You can sign up for walks and other events here: https://www.floracliff.org/events/. The walks usually have a maximum of 15 to 20 people and fill up fast. Walks to Elk Lick Falls go near Woody, as do Golden Hour tours to the falls and some of the wildflower hikes. Most cost $10 to $15. During Tree Week, which this year is October 8 to 18, there usually is a sponsored walk specifically to see the old chinkapins. It is free.

Read more and learn how to sign up for a guided walk at Nature Sanctuary by visiting this post on our website.

www.treeslexington.org/blog

📸 Beverly James