Pictured, from left at Tuesday morning’s planting, were resident Lara Mulvaney, Horticultural Advisory Committee member Georgianna McElroy, Councilman Jay Knerr, event honoree Joan Maloof, Mayor Zack Tyndall, Council members Steve Green and Jack Orris and Horticultural Advisory Committee member Victoria Spice.

By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

(Oct. 23, 2025) A tree grown from seeds of an over 2,000-year-old bald cypress in North Carolina, the oldest of its kind in the Eastern United States, found its way to the Town of Berlin’s Stephen Decatur Park earlier this week.

On Tuesday, Oct. 21, Berlin Mayor Zack Tyndall, with help from environmental activists and professionals, planted a tree at Stephen Decatur Park as part of the “Keep Berlin Cool” initiative, led by the municipality’s Horticultural Advisory Committee.

The sapling was grown from seeds of a tree from North Carolina’s Black River Swamp. The tree is estimated to be about 2,630 years old.

The planting is part of a tree growth project, known as “Keep Berlin Cool.” The initiative was the brainchild of Berlin resident Lara Mulvaney, who brought the idea to the municipality’s Horticultural Advisory Committee, a group charged with promoting sustainable landscaping in town.

Horticulture committee member Victoria Spice was present at Tuesday’s tree-planting, where she provided some insight into Keep Berlin Cool. The environmentalist said that the project was made possible by a grant from the Maryland Coastal Bays Program. The organization awarded the team $2,890 to plant 30 native trees at ten sites across Berlin.

Spice said that her group’s vision is for these plants to “increase urban tree canopy to literally ‘Keep Berlin Cool’” and absorb stormwater runoff in town.

“Our goal was really twofold,” she added. “It was not only to teach folks how to plant a tree properly, which can be tricky, but also how to maintain it and to have these really important, meaningful conversations around why native trees are so important, why native landscaping is so important in these urban spaces we have here.”

A specific collection of trees was selected for Stephen Decatur Park: the young sprouts of the thousands of years old bald cypress from North Carolina. The ancient plant’s donation was facilitated by Joan Maloof, a Berlin citizen and founder of the Old-Growth Forest Network, an organization that describes itself as “the only national network in the U.S. of protected, old-growth, native forests where people of all generations can experience biodiversity and the beauty of nature,” and whose goal is to “locate and designate at least one protected forest in every county in the United States that can sustain a native forest,” its website reads.

One of the trees of that bald cypress collection was saved to be planted in a ceremonial presentation by Maloof and Tyndall on Tuesday morning, surrounded by community members and a few Town Council representatives. That planting was in honor of Maloof for her efforts in securing the prehistoric seeds.

As part of the work with her organization, Maloof said that she had the opportunity to take a kayak trip into the Tree Sisters Swamp in North Carolina’s Black River with guide and outdoor explorer, Charles Robbins, who recognized that the trees there were special.

Maloof said that Robbins contacted scientists, “the best in the country,” and took them back to the swamp, who then determined one of the trees was around 2,630 years old.

“That is the oldest tree in the Eastern US,” Maloof said. “Think about it, that’s BC that that tree was growing. That’s before Christ, that’s before Buddha, before Muhammad that tree was growing in that swamp in North Carolina.”

A few years later, Robbins returned to that location and discovered the old tree had a reachable branch with seeds. He collected the seeds, grew them, kept them potted, and then donated them to the Old Growth Forest Network.

For the past few months, Maloof has looked after the young plants and has now handed them over to the Keep Berlin Cool project. The trees will sprout up at Stephen Decatur Park, where town officials and local environmentalists hope they will remain for hundreds of years.

“These trees hopefully are going to outlive all of us here,” Maloof said.

More trees are planned to be set throughout town, Spice said, including eight private residences, Buckingham Presbyterian Church, Henry Park, and Atlantic General Hospital’s Healthway Drive Community Garden.

At noon on Oct. 28, four native trees are scheduled to be planted on the front lawn of the Buckingham Presbyterian Church. Community members are invited to participate.

Berlin’s forestation efforts do not end with Keep Berlin Cool. Horticultural Advisory Committee member Georgianna McElroy, who was at this week’s planting, said that the group is looking to make Stephen Decatur Park a level two arboretum. This accreditation would require the implementation of at least 100 species of woody plants.

“We need support to get that done. Some trees might need to be replaced. There’s lots of room for more trees,” McElroy said. “We have talked to [public works], they’re working with us.”

The horticultural team member added that the committee is working on a plan to aim for this distinction, which will be presented to the Berlin Mayor and Council in the future.

The Calvin B. Taylor House Museum is currently classified as a level one arboretum, meaning it has 25 or more woody tree species.

Sara Gorfinkel, the mayor’s executive administrative assistant, added that the town was recently approved by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, “to suggest that Berlin is already well on its way to becoming a Tree City USA.” A Tree City USA is a community recognized for its effective urban forestry programs.

A bit more work and coordination are needed to secure the honor, but Gorfinkel maintained that Berlin will soon achieve membership in the Tree City USA project.