A white oak acorn sprouting at Foster Woods County Park. Photo courtesy of Steve Anderson.

Seeds are taking root at a Washington County area park, which could be 150 years in the making.

Washington County Conservation Director Steve Anderson shares what has developed in Foster Woods County Park near Wellman, “There’s actually a huge number of white oak acorns which doesn’t happen very often. White oaks seem to take the philosophy that they make a bumper crop one year and then they wait several years to do it again.”

Anderson says the acorns fell from August through September and immediately began sprouting. Recent precipitation has helped the acorn roots, and Anderson believes they may turn into new white oak trees, “I’m really hoping that we’ll be successful and we’ll actually grow some of those beautiful trees back. We won’t actually get to see it, it takes at least 50-150 years to get back to where we are. So we’re doing this with the idea that our grandkids we’ll actually be there to enjoy it more than us.”

The white oak trees in Foster Woods County Park are an estimated 150 years old. Last year conservation staff and volunteers removed a large amount of the understory. This has opened up greater sunlight to the floor, which could increase the chances of new white oak trees to replace ones that have died over the years.