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ll Ken King wanted was a bit of shade.

About a dozen years ago as he took his dog on walks along Ragan Road, he found the sun unrelenting, “You risked heat stroke anytime short of 5 or 6p,” he recalls. Little relief was in sight. On long stretches of Ragan and other streets back then there were few, if any, roadside trees.

Finding shade. Ken King at one of the favorite trees he’s planted in Oriental, both on his own and with the Oriental Tree Board.

That was the catalyst which set him on a new road. A retired securities broker, with no experience in horticulture or trees, Ken King joined the Oriental Tree Board in 2003. He has since helped plant many if not most of the 1,000 trees the Tree Board has put in alongside town streets, in parks and even on privately owned land over the past 20 years.

Now, his efforts to create some shade have put Ken King in the spotlight. In early October, he was honored as Volunteer of the Year by the NC Urban Forest Council.

The plaque Ken King received last week from the NC Urban Forest Council. (No trees were harmed in the taking of this photo. No nail was used.) The plaque was hung on a branch stub of a tree next to Brantley’s Restaurant. (Click on photo to make larger.)

Oriental Tree Board chairman Bob Miller nominated Ken King, describing him as “the driving force behind Oriental Tree Board’s effort to repopulate our streets and parks with canopy trees.”

Characteristically, Ken King credited other members of the Tree Board as well. And he is quick to note that the town should get credit too, for supporting the Tree Board’s planting program, which in turn led to one of its members getting the honor.

It’s often expected that live oaks would take a long time to grow, but they grow vigorously in their first years. Ken King shows the height of the sapling when it was planted 12 years ago.

Ken favors planting trees native to this area, prime among them, the live oaks. With branches that swoop to the ground, they provide plenty of that summertime commodity – shade.

And something else, too. The trees give “an additional amount of grace and dignity to the town,” Ken King says. “It makes town look like it’s been here for a while.”

Ken King, named volunteer of the year by the NC Urban Forest Council.

Asked if he had a favorite among the live oaks he and the Tree Board planted in Oriental, he says, “Actually, I do. I dug it up out of my yard and I planted it for Lynn Stowe 12 years ago.”

The tree doesn’t stand in any idyllic park setting. Rather, it’s out in front of the Broad Street hardware store Stowe owned back then.

Ken King and the hardware store live oak. It has been a success, but the shade it creates could imperil it as drivers seek a cool spot to park their cars and roll the car’s weight over the tree roots.

“Despite being way less than an optimal site for a tree like this, it’s done remarkably well,” Ken says. Hip-high when planted, its limbs now hang low, spreading toward the asphalt parking lots on both sides. The live oak brings rare shade, and makes his case about trees adding some grace and gentleness to the streetscape, in this case along that stretch of Broad.

Ken King at one of two live oaks planted a decade ago in front of Oriental Village Veterinary Hospital. Back then, the trees came in containers the size of the one he is holding.

Other favorite plantings – for demonstrating just how fast live oaks can grow — are the two trees in front of Sherri Hicks’ Oriental Village Veterinary Hospital. They were planted over a decade ago after a huge magnolia on the lot next door was cut down.

As much as he likes the live oaks, Ken King recommends Lupton Park – the playground – for the variety of trees there, including willow oak, American beech, paperbark elm, pistache, fringetree, red bay, and Eastern hophornbeam.

The work with the trees doesn’t end with the plantings. Ken King often visits the planted trees to check on their growth, or to water them (with water he hauls in by trailer) Part of making the streets of Oriental look “more gentle.”

Checking up on not only the live oak planted close to Broad Street, near the hardware store, but also a trio of trees next door that he donated and planted a decade ago.

Oriental Tree Board chair Bob Miller’s nominating letter to the NC Urban Forest Council, regarding Ken King. (The first Ken heard of it was when he received a call saying he’d won Volunteer of the Year honors.)

Ken King has been the driving force behind Oriental Tree Board’s effort to repopulate our streets and parks with canopy trees. We have planted 1,000 trees in our 20-year history as a tree city, or put another way we have planted more trees than there are people in our town of 900.

Many decades ago Oriental did have tree-lined streets, but old age and hurricanes decimated the population to a low point by the 1990s. The Oriental Tree Board was formed to replace the lost canopy, and for much of the past two decades Ken has played a major role in our efforts.

In fall and winter we get requests from residents for street trees, and many more are added to the planting list as Ken contacts property owners on lots where there are no public trees. Once we have a planting list Ken contacts various nurseries in Eastern North Carolina to determine what they have in stock and then he travels to these nurseries to pick up trees.

Ken has also grown planting stock from seed for public planting and has given them to private homeowners as well. In winter his yard serves as the holding area for new trees destined to be planted in town.

We usually plant one day a week in the winter and spring. On planting days Ken loads the needed trees on the Tree Board trailer and brings them to planting sites. He also makes tree stakes to identify new trees and makes collars to protect them from string trimmers.

When we get a dry spell Ken loads up the tree trailer with garbage cans of water and lets us know when watering is needed. All members of the Oriental Tree Board are volunteers who donate much time and energy for our tree program; however Ken’s dedication to restoration of Oriental’s tree canopy has most certainly been a key factor in our accomplishments.

Live oak acorn.

Surveying some acorn samples.

Posted Wednesday October 14, 2015 by Melinda Penkava