New seeds planted throughout the Rogue Valley, where the project originated

By Tony Boom for the Rogue Valley Times

An 11-day trip to Japan by a local arborist will lead to continuation and expansion in Oregon of the Peace Tree initiative — planting of seedlings from trees that survived the Hiroshima atomic bomb attack. The genesis of the project was in the Rogue Valley.

Mike Oxendine, who raised the first batch of seedlings, traveled with five others in early November on a trip that secured seeds for more sprouts. The mission also enhanced understanding of the devastation caused by the 1945 nuclear blast, built bridges of understanding and will be incorporated in an upcoming documentary on the project.

The new seeds are planted at Plant Oregon on Wagner Creek in Talent. Oxendine expects sprouts to emerge in the summer, but it will be three to five years before seedlings reach the stage where they can be transplanted.

“The last Peace Tree of phase one went to the state prison” in Portland, Oxendine said. “Phase two is definitely the expansion of the Peace Tree project in Oregon and making them available to additional communities. We have had requests we haven’t been able to fulfill.”

Hideko Tamura Snider approached Oxendine, then grounds supervisor at Southern Oregon University, about requesting and germinating seeds in 2017. Tamura Snider, a Medford resident, was a 10-year-old girl in Hiroshima when the bomb dropped. She managed to survive, but an estimated 140,000 lost their lives, including her mother.

Oxendine requested 700 seeds of seven different species from Green Legacy Hiroshima in Japan. The organization usually got requests for 10 or 12 seeds at a time, but with his experience, Oxendine knew that some wouldn’t sprout and some that did would not have characteristics to ensure longevity.

“I come from a nursery background. To me, 100 seeds is a very small request,” said Oxendine. “I’m used to requesting a bushel of seeds.”

Only three of the seven varieties — ginkgo, persimmon and camellia — are viable for planting in Oregon. Sprouts from two other varieties were sent to the San Diego Botanical Garden for distribution and two of the varieties produced no seedlings.

From the 2017 planting, there were 70 ginkgoes, a handful of persimmons and only one camellia. The camellia is now planted outside the Japanese Garden in Ashland’s Lithia Park.

Over 50 Peace Trees have been planted in the Pacific Northwest, with 49 of those in Oregon. It is the densest population of Hiroshima Peace Trees outside of Japan. In Hiroshima, there are 160 survivor trees, and the delegation visited more than 20 of those.

Other trees planted in the Rogue Valley include a ginkgo in Ashland at The Farm at Southern Oregon University; a ginkgo and a persimmon at Chuck Roberts Park in Talent; a persimmon at the Congregational United Church of Christ in Medford; a persimmon at Crater High School in Central Point; a ginkgo at Skyrman Arboretum in Central Point; and a ginkgo at John F. Fleming Veterans Memorial Park in Rogue River.

Oxendine approached the Oregon Community Trees board, on which he serves, about aiding with the project as the number of seedlings had become overwhelming.

Jim Gersbach, also on the OCT board, was a participant on the Japan trip. He previously had arranged for seedlings to be cared for by Jennifer Killian with the Corvallis Parks and Recreation Department. Gersbach also worked with the Oregon Department of Forestry Community Forest Program to organize distribution of Peace Trees around Oregon, with priority being given to designated Tree Cities USA and Tree Campuses USA.

Besides Oxendine and Gersbach, others on the trip to Japan were Chris John, Daniel and Rehana Hedberg and their 5-year-old son, Kai. Daniel Hedberg is creating the documentary “Seeds of Peace” about the Oregon effort. He showed 30 minutes of selections from the film at several venues with university communities and others. Release of the film is expected in the summer.

“We spent a lot of time learning and visiting the memorials and the two museums,” Oxendine said. “They walk you through the past — before the bombing and after the bombing. They go in-depth.

“In the atomic (epicenter) park, you know that you are walking in a place where tens of thousands of people perished. It is emotionally heavy and hard to comprehend until you are in that place,” Oxendine said.

Signed copies of Tamura Snider’s books, “When a Peace Tree Blooms” and “One Sunny Day,” were presented during meetings. They tell her life story and her endeavors toward fostering a nuclear weapons-free world.

In a ceremony to honor victims whose remains were not recovered, a poem by Tamura Snider and another by former Oregon Poet Laureate Kim Stafford were read.

Besides visiting Hiroshima, the delegation went to Nagasaki, the second site where an atomic bomb was dropped by the United States. There is no formal project in Nagasaki to distribute seeds from survivor trees, although there is a map that shows the location of 30 such trees. Part of the mission was to meet with folks in Nagasaki to see if there could be a program, Oxendine said.

A park somewhere in Oregon with a number of Peace Trees is another goal for Oxendine. He’d also like to see survivor trees at the park — those that made it through other man-made or natural disasters, such as the Almeda and South Obenchain fires in the Rogue Valley in 2020. Forming more ties with the San Diego Botanical Gardens is also a goal.

In addition to his work at SOU, Oxendine has worked with Ashland Parks and Recreation, Plant Oregon and the city of Talent as chair of the Urban Forestry Committee. He also took on the role of hazard mitigation coordinator for Talent in the wake of the Almeda Fire. He is now executive director of the nonprofit Our Community Forestry.

Reach Ashland freelance writer Tony Boom at [email protected]. This story first appeared in the Rogue Valley Times.