A new program is highlighting ‘heritage’ specimens islandwide.

She’s a bit gnarled with age and her family’s long since been uprooted.

Yet, she still bears fruit every summer, blooms white every spring and reminds all who care to pay attention that downtown Winslow was once a sprawling apple orchard.

The old apple tree outside the clinic downtown is just one of many specimens plant pathologist Olaf Ribiero believes could benefit from a new city program aimed at drawing attention to the island’s most valued or historically significant trees.

“The tree looks a little beat up but it’s one of the first planted in an orchard that later became a city,” Ribiero said. “It’s well over a hundred years old but it should stand a long time if it’s cared for.

“Hopefully this new program will help people recognize that we have many unique trees and that we can make a difference in saving them.”

Approved by the City Council last week, the new “heritage tree program” allows residents to nominate island trees for special designation based on age, species, form, location, ecological value or historical significance.

Trees that make the list receive an interpretive plaque and inclusion on a special map and register. The city will also provide the tree’s owner with an arborist’s assessment of the specimen’s health and recommendations for maintenance, root preservation and pruning.

“This is a valuable resource that will help educate people and recognize the great trees we have in our environment,” said Sally Adams, who helped draft the measure as a member of the city’s Community Forestry Commission. “We worked very hard to provide something acceptable to the council. The program’s totally voluntary, yet it has some teeth in it by setting up processes to encourage” each tree’s preservation.

Designation requires landowner permission and does not impede the removal of registered trees.

Modeled after similar programs in Seattle and Portland, the Bainbridge measure is the first of its kind in the county.

“People may walk by a 400-year-old yew tree a dozen times and not even know it,” said forester Jim Trainer, who is working toward a county-wide heritage tree program. “But in Seattle, people do stop when they see an interpretive plaque.”

Ribiero has a long list of trees he’d like to see on the island’s heritage tree registry.

“There’s an enormous cedar down by Pritchard Park that is very important,” he said, “In old photos, you can see the island’s Japanese people huddled under it waiting to be deported.”

The cedar’s significance during the World War II internment of the island’s Japanese-Americans earned it designation on the American Register of Historic Trees. Acknowledging the tree under the city’s heritage tree program could bring more attention to the tree’s dire health problems.

“Its roots are exposed because the shoreline is eroding,” he said. “It’s in desperate need of being shored up.”

Ribiero would also like to highlight three trees that stand outside the Bainbridge His­torical Museum on Ericksen Avenue.

The red oak, sycamore and elm were brought to the island as seedlings from the world-renowned Kew Gardens near London by one of Winslow’s pioneering families.

“England’s royal family kept the most unique trees at Kew Gardens,” Ribiero said. “The Cave family brought some trees from there maybe to make themselves feel at home on the island. Mr. Cave was passionate about trees. He planted them like Johnny Appleseed.”

As these and other trees age, maintenance and upkeep become increasingly important.

“That’s why this program is a giant step forward,” he said. “Having the city (provide) an independent arborist charged with saving trees makes a big difference. Homeowners and just about everyone I’ve worked with on the island know that these trees add to their property and they want to be shown how they can care for their trees.”

Ribiero, Trainer and the commission are discussing a possible tour of the island’s unique trees in May. Kitsap Transit has already agreed to lend the services of one of its buses, Ribiero said.

To nominate a significant tree, call the planning department at 842-2552.