Free, self-guided

Some of these trees wear a brass tag.

Each one is stamped by hand and hung at eye level on the tree it names. There is no route and no order — walk the loop, read what you pass, and argue about the ones you spot before you reach the tag.

A row of leaves, each paired with its hand-stamped brass tag, laid along a deck rail — Tagging day, October 2023 — every tag laid out on a leaf from its own tree before going up.

Tagged trees

These trees wear a brass tag. More every season.

A brass tag stamped SUGAR MAPLE resting on a scarlet maple leaf — Sugar Maple Acer saccharum Tapped every February. The sap runs only when nights freeze and days thaw — the tree sets the date, not us.

A brass tag stamped WITCH HAZEL resting on a green witch hazel leaf — Witch Hazel Hamamelis virginiana Flowers in November, after its own leaves have dropped. The last bloom of the year, and the one we distill.

A brass tag stamped SASSAFRAS resting on yellow sassafras leaves — Sassafras Sassafras albidum Three leaf shapes on one tree — oval, mitten, and three-lobed. Kids find this one fastest.

A brass tag resting on a dry oak leaf — Oak Quercus Acorns feed most of what walks past this trail. Heavy years and lean years alternate, and the whole forest keeps that calendar.

A brass tag hanging from a hook on the bark of a mature tree in the forest — On the trail Every tag hangs at eye level on the tree it names. Walk the loop and read them in any order.

Why tag a tree at all.

Because a forest is unreadable until you can name three or four things in it, and then it opens up all at once. Most people arrive able to identify a maple and nothing else. An hour later they are picking sassafras out at twenty feet by its mittens.

The tags were stamped and hung by a group of kids, which is why the letter spacing wanders. We have left them exactly as they were made.

Trees that are also workshops

Several of the tagged species turn up again later in the year as something you can make. The trail is the introduction; the workshop is the rest of it.

Sugar Maple Maple syrup, every February
Witch Hazel Witch hazel, cut after leaf drop

See the workshop calendar →

Walking it

Cost: Free
When: Any daylight hour. No booking, no guide needed.
Length: A short loop — 30 to 45 minutes at reading pace
Guided version: Covered on the ecology hikes for school groups

Tags go missing occasionally — weather, curiosity, the odd bear. If you find one on the ground, leave it at the trailhead and we will re-hang it.