Gene Hyde inspects and talks about planting trees near marked gas lines in the Murray Hills Walking Track park near Highway 58.The temperature is dropping and the wind is whipping small raindrops through the air, but Gene Hyde doesn't seem to notice.
He's focused on the tiny yellow and pink flags that outline where a gas line runs beneath a walking trail in the Murray Hills neighborhood off Highway 58.
He points to a series of white slats of wood that show where his crews have planted what will grow into a dozen magnolias and cherry trees.
The plantings are small now, but Hyde is a patient man.
For 26 years, he has worked as the city's urban forester, and he has slowly seen his plantings grow into full-fledged trees, shading city streets and soaking up stormwater and pollution.
But he is involved in a new local project that is less practical and much more romantic: a wedding and commemorative forest.
The idea came from Chattanooga's sister city, Hamm, Germany.
A Hamm environmental official, Tobias Garske, was visiting the Scenic City for a conference on sustainability and each participant was asked to describe a project from his or her hometown. Garske talked about the "Hochzeitwald," or Wedding Forest, a long-lost German tradition his town revived in 1996.
Three hundred years ago, some German towns required couples to plant trees to be eligible for a wedding license, said Garske, who is visiting Chattanooga this week. Over the centuries, local forests had been decimated, so the idea made both practical and symbolic sense.
Garske believes that is still the case.
"We see it as a symbol of eternal life, with roots growing in the ground," he said, "and it is a good combination of doing something personal and something that is good for nature."
Hamm officials were not certain how the project would be received, so they began slowly on a couple of acres. But the project quickly won public backing. In 20 years, three additional sites have been added, 1,500 trees planted, and sculptures and benches added to make the forest more of a park.
"It became a point for families to meet at their tree and have breakfast and lunch," Garske said.
Some 20 other towns in Germany have followed Hamm's lead, he said, but Chattanooga is the first "trans-Atlantic" site.
"I had a dream," Garske said, "that maybe we would have an idea that will be shared with our sister city in Chattanooga."
Hyde loved the idea, but it took a while to find a location and get the city and county government to grant the necessary approvals.
Because of delays in getting approval for a site near the Riverwalk, the Wedding Forest was set for Sculpture Fields, the sprawling sculpture garden between Main Street and 23d Street in Montague Park.
But three days after that decision, the county approved the other site. So now there will be two locations, according to Karen Claypool, president of the Chattanooga Sister City Association, a key supporter of the project.
The first, at Sculpture Fields, will be dedicated at 2 p.m. Friday. That will be a commemorative forest, Claypool said, where trees will be planted to remember loved ones.
The Wedding Forest should open this fall on several acres of land near the Riverwalk, where Chickamauga Creek joins the Tennessee River near Lost Mound Road.
"It's a gorgeous site," Hyde said.
Initially, Sculpture Fields will take applications for planting commemorative trees at the sculpture park, and the Sister Cities group will book plantings for the Wedding Forest project.
The county and Sculpture Fields made the land for both forests available at no cost, and the cost of maintenance should be low, Hyde said, since the sites are primarily forests and not parks.
"We already maintain that area," said Hamilton County Parks and Recreation Director Tom Lamb.
Some 30 varieties of trees will be planted at Sculpture Fields, qualifying the forest as an arboretum, Hyde said. The variety will be more limited at the Wedding Forest, primarily oak, maple and cherry, although some gingko might be added.
The cost of the trees has yet to be determined, Lamb said.
And in case you're wondering, if the marriage does not work out, the tree a couple plants in the Wedding Forest won't be affected.
"If couples get a divorce we're not going to go cut down their tree," Hyde said.
Contact staff writer Steve Johnson at sjohnson@timesfreepress.com, 423-757-6673, on Twitter @stevejohnsonTFP, and on Facebook, www.facebook.com/noogahealth.