National Award Winning Community: A few words from our arborist

In my 14-year career as an arborist, Autumn Hall is the most tree-friendly project with which I’ve been involved. I’ve had the unique opportunity of working with a tree conscious team from the general contractor, Thomas Construction, to a bulldozer operator with Thomson Construction that helped save a historically important longleaf pine. Together the Autumn Hall Team has worked hard to create an arboreal oasis that will benefit residents and visitors alike for years to come. And people have noticed.

For the second year in a row, Autumn Hall has won a City of Wilmington Tree Commission Award, and, most recently, we received a National Arbor Day Foundation Building with Trees Award of Excellence for promoting best tree preservation practices throughout the construction process. Only 3 communities in the nation received this honor.

Last year, the City of Wilmington gave us awards for Outstanding Tree Preservation and Use of Native Trees. This year, the city recognized us for our tree friendly design in Chapel Park. One of several parks in Autumn Hall, Chapel Park is unique in that it was not included in the original design. Two houses were slated to be built in this area, but during a walk through after the initial design phase, the developer deemed that a grove of live oaks simply could not be destroyed. The live oaks trumped construction, and a playground was built instead. I assessed all the trees in the park for soundness and structural stability, and only trees that were deemed unsafe were removed. All other trees were preserved and pruned where needed. Josh Mihaly, our landscape architect, and I designed a pathway through the park and Brian Humphries, a local architect, designed and built several unique playground structures amongst the trees including a lighthouse tower and a boat run aground.

The National Arbor Day Foundation Award of Excellence recognizes the overall scope of Autumn Hall’s vision as a development. Raiford and the Autumn Hall team have worked hard to put trees at the forefront of the project. Roads have been moved and sewer and water lines rerouted to preserve trees. We removed trees from areas on the property where they could not be saved and planted them as street trees. No house is more than 400 feet sidewalk distance from a park, and native species were preserved in parks and green spaces. Raiford chose to save trees across the property when it would have been cheaper and easier to destroy them. As a developer, he has truly gone the extra mile to create a very special place.

I am very proud to be part of a team fostering green development in Wilmington at a level that is worthy of national praise, and I invite you to experience the grandeur of what we have created.

E. Scott McGhee
Scott's Treescape
Team Arborist
Autumn Hall Development