HESS helps relocate a tree planted by MCPS students

Wednesday, October 27, 2021 – HESS assisted Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) with relocating a 15-year-old tree planted by two former Tilden Middle School students.

In June 2006, two Tilden Middle School students, Andy Miller and Matt Bernstein, with support from their teacher Hope Schmidt, planted trees from Shag Bark Hickory nuts in the fields behind the school. The nuts sprouted, the trees grew, and the surrounding community was able to witness the trees grow taller and taller. Since then, Tilden Middle School has been relocated from Old Georgetown Road to a new location on Tilden Lane, and the Old Georgetown Road location will soon see the return and reopening of Charles W. Woodward High School.

The Tilden seedlings, planted by Andy and Matt, came from a 150-year-old tree that grew from nuts brought over from Germany in 1850 by a family that settled in Chevy Chase, Maryland. When the community shared their desire to preserve this history by relocating a tree planted by two former students to the new Tilden Middle School, the HESS Team worked with MCPS and the community to develop a plan to carefully remove the tree from the former Tilden Middle School field, transport and replant it behind the new Tilden Middle School/Rock Terrace School.