Chris Lyle displays his winning design for the Signal Mountain Lions Club’s community license plate design contest.
Photo by Emily CrismanChris Lyle is the winner of the Signal Mountain Lions Club license plate design contest, which was announced at the club’s annual Labor Day barbecue.
“I grinned for 30 minutes after they called,” he said.
Lyle’s design features hemlock trees, a theme he said was inspired by the threat recently posed to the community’s hemlocks by the non-native woolly adelgid insect.
“I wanted to make people aware,” he said of the woolly adelgid, which can spread to other trees in the area if left untreated, threatening the existence of all the community’s hemlocks.
“If any tree says mountains, it’s the hemlock,” said Lyle, a resident of Signal Mountain for 15 years and an employee at Signal Mountain Nursery.