Hidden Oaks invites community to Woodland Wonders Tree Art Open House June 1

A drawing of the tree sculpture.

The community is invited to an open house at the Hidden Oaks Nature Center June 1 to raise money for an art project to be created from a tree stump.

At the Woodland Wonders Tree Art Open House, at 7701 Royce St., Annandale, 1-3 p.m., attendees can meet chainsaw artist Andrew Mallon and other local woodcarvers, take a nature walk, and enjoy a puppet show. Those activities are free.

For a donation, families can create art from discs cut from the tree (“tree cookies”), carve soap, release ladybugs into the woods, and more.

The tree stump is all that’s left of a 100-foot tulip poplar just outside the picture window at Hidden Oaks after it was hit by two lightning strikes and was in imminent danger of falling on the building.

Since the base of the 128-year-old tree was undamaged, the nature center staff arranged for a ten-foot stump to remain in place and have Mallon turn it into an artwork featuring some of the woodland creatures that had enjoyed the tree over the years, including a flying squirrel, woodpecker, and owl.

The Friends of Hidden Oaks Nature Center is hoping to raise $5,000 for the tree art and helped plan the open house. The public is invited to “adopt” one of the animals on the sculpture for a donation of $500 to $1000.

Corporate and large individual donations will be recognized on a tree cookie unveiled on Oct. 19, at the 50th anniversary celebration of Hidden Oaks, the county’s first nature center.