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Culpeper board endorses proposal to plant trees along Hallowed Ground route for Civil War sesquicentennial Date published: 2/3/2010
BY DONNIE JOHNSTON
Planting one tree for each of the 620,000 soldiers who died during the Civil War. That is what the Journey Through Hallowed Ground is considering as a legacy project to help commemorate the sesquicentennial of the war. That 150th anniversary begins in 2011 and Cate Wyatt, president of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground, wants to be ready if federal dollars become available for commemorative purposes. To that end, the Culpeper County Board of Supervisors yesterday approved a resolution giving its stamp of approval to the proposed project. But the vote was not unanimous and several supervisors had serious reservations about the plan, which Wyatt said will cost an estimated $62 million. Supervisor Sue Hansohn said she would not support the resolution because those trees might block the views along U.S. 15, which is the main highway along the Journey Through Hallowed Ground from Gettysburg, Pa., to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home outside Charlottesville. Hansohn was also concerned about what hoops local and state governments might have to jump through should portions of U.S. 15 need to be widened to four lanes. Wyatt said that the trees would be placed on private property far enough off the state right-of-way to allow for road improvements. The "private property" issue, however, raised another question. "Who will those trees belong to?" Supervisor Larry Aylor asked. Wyatt gave no conclusive answer. The trees would be on private property, but the JTHG would need to have guaranteed access to them for maintenance and replacement purposes. After all, she said, "each represents a soldier who died in the Civil War." She added that it was her group's hope that those trees would mature and be a part of the Civil War's bicentennial celebration in 2061. She did not allude to what might happen should a landowner need to cut one of these trees that will likely be financed--at least in part--by federal dollars. Those federal dollars presented another bone of contention. Supervisor Tom Underwood--who, like Hansohn, voted against the resolution--said that while he had great respect for the Civil War, he couldn't justify asking Congress for money for tree planting when the country is already staring at a $3 trillion FY2011 budget with a huge deficit. "I think we have much greater challenges facing our nation," Underwood said.
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