Written by WAYNE FORD | ATHENS BANNER-HERALD
Back in 1976, the Athens Banner-Herald reported on the planting of a “Moon Tree” that “may rival” the city’s legendary Tree That Owns Itself.
(Photo/Chamberlain Smith for the Athens Banner-Herald)
However, the Moon Tree’s reputation never germinated.
The tree — a loblolly pine grown from a seed that circled the moon during the Apollo 14 moon mission — was planted in 1976 by the Sertoma Club as part of the nation’s bicentennial celebration. A marker designating the tree was installed, but it disappeared over time. Soon, the tree and its legacy were forgotten.
Today, the tree looms large and anonymous.
Athens businessman Nathan Carmack and fellow Sertoma member Henry Folsom led the effort to the obtain the tree seedling offered by NASA. Contacted last Wednesday, Carmack only had a vague recollection of the Moon Tree planting 44 years ago.
“I assume we planted it somewhere,” Carmack said.
When he learned the tree was planted outside a city government building on Dougherty Street and was still alive, he was pleased.
“It’s great the tree is still living,” Carmack said.
There was a chance the tree could have fallen victim to a $317 million project under way to redevelop 13 acres in the Bethel Homes area. However, an employee of the University of Georgia stepped in to oppose that idea in an effort to protect the tree with a forgotten history.
Melanie Ford, who works in the UGA Architects for Facilities office, said recently that she approached an official involved in the project and was told “the tree is probably slated to get demolished in the near future.”
At a later date, she talked to another city employee involved in the development and was relieved to hear “there are no plans to now tear it down.”
“I don’t want the tree torn down,” said Ford, who added she is writing a thesis proposal on the Moon Trees.
(Photo/Chamberlain Smith for the Athens Banner-Herald)
Athens-Clarke Central Services Director Andrew Saunders said Thursday that saving the tree is a good idea.
“We have relayed to the project team working on the North Athens project our desire to make sure the Moon Tree is preserved. It’s a high priority for us because we only have one,” said Saunders, who has a background in forestry.
Ford is deep in her research on the Moon Trees.
The decision to bring seeds from five different types of trees aboard the moon mission was the idea of astronaut Stuart Roosa, who piloted the command module for the 1971 Apollo 14 mission while astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell walked on the moon’s surface. All three are now deceased.
After the flight, NASA sent the seeds to forestry stations and about 420 to 450 seedlings germinated, according to the NASA webpage on the project. Most seedlings were given away in 1975 and 1976 to organizations to be planted as part of the bicentennial celebration. Some were also given to other nations such as Brazil and Switzerland, according to NASA.
NASA has documented 77 of the Moon Trees as still living in the United States.
The Banner-Herald story in 1976 reported four trees went to Georgia, but only two are known to still exist, the one in Athens and another planted outside the state education agency RESA in Waycross.
Reba Smith, an employee of RESA in Waycross, said officials there rededicated their tree, also a loblolly pine, in May 2019 in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and to honor Don Berryhill, a retired science educator responsible for planting the tree in 1976. Berryhill is in his 90s, Smith said.
“A week before we did our rededication, this man, who was doing a book about all of the first generation Moon Trees, all of sudden popped up on my (computer) screen,” she said. After writer and photographer Byron Miller was contacted, he attended the Waycross ceremony, as did Rosemary Roosa, the daughter of astronaut Stuart Roosa.
Rosemary Roosa has established a Moon Tree Foundation to help secure the legacy of the trees.
“A lot of people who felt like they knew a lot about Waycross were like ‘How did I not know this tree was here,’” Smith said.
Fate led Ford to discover the Moon Tree in Athens.
“I found out as a random thing while working on a project,” she said, explaining she then began researching the narrative behind the Moon Trees.
Excited about her find, Ford was alarmed when she learned the tree might fall to the Athens redevelopment plan.
“It’s a cultural resource that no one knew existed,” she said.
Of the hundreds of Moon Trees believed planted across the U.S., NASA keeps track of those known to survive.
Some of the other tree locations include the campuses of Auburn University, University of Florida, Mississippi State University and University of the South. Others include the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and even one at a private home in Westlake, Texas.
(Photo/Chamberlain Smith for the Athens Banner-Herald)
Now the Moon Tree in Athens has reemerged from oblivion through one woman’s work.
“We have a Moon Tree,” Ford said. “It is thriving and doing well.”
Editors Note:
In 1976 I was 16 years old and I was so excited to be able to see and live during the countries bicentennial! I was also very much into NASA and astronauts and Star Trek.
I had no idea that there were any seeds from the Moon being planted around the world 🌍 during this time. (I would have gone Nuts or maybe Pinecones.) So this article is amazing to me! Life 🧬 even after orbiting the Moon and being exposed to the radiation of space, and it lives.
Because of my live of nature I shall start an investigation to see if I can track down any other living Moon Trees. So we started with Athens, GA and see what we can find in future articles.
Derek Allen; editor.
The Science Probe 