Help Save Happy Creek

Happy Creek with Riparian Buffer

In 2008, the Town and Warren County Parks & Rec partnered with local community organizations to design and implement a riparian buffer zone for the section of Happy Creek along Front Street.  This included strategically installed river rocks, called rock vanes, to slow down the water as it meandered downstream, creating trout habitat and alleviating erosion. This project became a showcase for other communities, demonstrating proper protection of our region’s valuable streams, river banks, and water quality.  It showed forward thinking by government officials.

After clear cutting, including trees over 4 inches in diameter.

As of today, Front Royal’s Town Council has taken a major step backwards destroying a fully functioning stream bed and river banks by clear-cutting hundreds of trees, ripping out the roots and undergrowth that filter pollutants and prevent soil carried by rainwater from running into the creek.  Over 125 of those trees were larger than 4” in diameter.

We the citizens of the Town and County are raising our voices to decry the destruction of Happy Creek.

Please make your voices heard by writing and calling the Town Council members.  These actions were taken without proper research or environmental advice.  The public still has no answers to why this is being done, and why now.  The legacy of the Town Council will be the blight it brought on the Town.

For more talking points and suggestions and who to direct your questions and opinions, please visit our News page.

Thanks to everyone for joining this effort to Save Happy Creek!

Protect Your Trees This Winter

It's time to start thinking about protecting your trees against the harsh winter. Careful pruning to remove dead branches, mulching to prevent desiccation, and wrapping trunks with burlap strips or commercial tree wrap to prevent bark splitting and deer damage are among a few steps you can do in the next few months to help your trees stay healthy through the winter. For details see this Virginia Cooperative Extension Publication.

You can help stop the Spotted Lanternfly!

A potentially very serious pest of grapes, peaches, hops, and a variety of other crops, the spotted lanternfly (SLF), Lycorma delicatula, was detected in Frederick County, Virginia, on Jan. 10, 2018. It is important to look for it and report any finds. The Spotted Lanternfly has also been reported on a range of ornamentals around the home and in the landscape.

IDENTIFY
Watch a short video to learn to identify the different stages of this destructive, non-native pest!

REPORT
If you think you have found one, be sure to report it
1) If you have a specimen, you can take a specimen to your local Virginia Cooperative Extension office. Warren County VT Extension Office
2) Do you have a picture? If you only have a picture or would rather submit a picture, (be sure to include a street address of insect location) Please use this form to send your location and pic: https://ask.extension.org/groups/1981/ask

CONTROL
Learn about residential control of the Spotted Lanternfly

We love Trees!

Trees shelter us, feed us, clean our air and provide shade. They are a source of recreation and inspiration. The numerous shapes of trees, leaves and seeds amaze us. The immense height or girth can boggle the mind. Colors of leaves in the fall are the creative juice for artists, photographers and poets. They are beautiful and they improve the quality of our lives.

Do you have a tree question? If so, you have come to the right place.

  • Are you trying to find the right tree to plant in a special location?
  • Want to know the proper way to prune your trees?
  • Does your tree have a problem or disease? Invasive vines?
  • Mulching is important but how wide and how deep?
  • When to water and how much?
  • And...should I top my tree? (Definitely not.)

 

Congratulations!  Front Royal Warren County Tree Stewards Celebrate 20th Anniversary with a 20-Tree Planting 

You have found our website and we hope that you will also find the answer to some of your questions. There are sections on tree care, threats to trees and the benefits of trees. If you need more, we encourage you to take the "All About Trees" class that is offered every Fall or contact us and a Tree Steward will do their best to answer your questions.

Ready for a walk? Check out the Happy Creek Arboretum which is right off Main Street to find and identify over 30 trees at various stages of maturity. The Arboretum is also part of a larger loop called the Royal Shenandoah Greenway, sections of which are already completed, including a path along the Shenandoah River through Eastham Park. Maybe you will catch a glimpse of Stewart!

If you live here in the Shenandoah, trees are part of our daily life and we encourage you to learn more, to protect them, and to get out and enjoy. If you don't live here then come and visit, you will be awestruck by the Shenandoah Valley and the Blue Ridge Mountains. We guarantee you will love our trees too!

Front Royal/Warren County
Tree Stewards and Stewart

Front Royal Celebrated 21 years as a qualified member of Tree City USA!

Curious about how much you already know about trees?

Take our "Ask Stewart Quiz" just for fun.