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Let's talk trees.

Amble into downtown Lewisville, to the western edge of Shallowford Square, and you'll find three oaks no one wants to lose.

Sure, they give great shade, particularly during the town's annual Beach Blast.
But these trees are at least 70 years old, and town officials don't want them to die. So, last year, they allocated $4,000 to save them.

So far, it's worked. Mulched and watered, the trees are showing signs of recovery from last summer's drought.

Now, meet Andrea Hulke. She's the national manager of outreach for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International. She flies all over the country. But she loves flying home.

Hulke is 27, a native of St. Louis. She grew up seeing businesses and buildings on either side of her, melding one section into the next section into the next.

Today, she lives with her Boston-born husband on a subdivision cul-de-sac outside Kernersville. Cows low in her backyard. A Starbucks sits down the street. And every time she bikes, she sees trees all around her.

"I just love the familiarity of it," said Hulke, who moved to Forsyth County two years ago. "It's cozy. It's comfortable, it's cute, and it has character. Sometimes, I wish I had more, but if I wanted more, I'd go to Greensboro."

Forsyth County is like that.

It's the green-and-tree gateway to northwest North Carolina. It's where the unremarkable flatness of Guilford County gives way to a rolling landscape that makes Winston-Salem feel like San Francisco — without the attitude.

But there's more to Forsyth County than Winston-Salem.

There's Mayberry-like towns, cities and townships — 20 in all. The folks who live there often go back years, even generations. They know their history. They know what they like. And they don't want you to mess with it.

Like in Lewisville.

A few months back, town officials didn't want the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners to give them the green light to extend their jurisdictions another two miles.

They wanted Lewisville to remain Lewisville. Not Suburban Sprawl, USA.

"They (local residents) don't want a lot of development," says Merrikay Brown, a local librarian and president of the Lewisville Historical Society. "They want to see a place that has parks and older homes that look like grandma's house."

Forsyth County is growing. Ask anybody. But you don't need numbers. Just hit Business 40 at 7:15 any weekday morning and head toward Winston-Salem.

You'll see it. A line of cars.

Forsyth is a commuter county. With trees. And strong family ties.

Just ask Jacob Sechrest. His family has been living and farming on County Line Road near Colfax for a century.

"It gives you a great sense of comfort, knowing what to expect," Sechrest, a cook at Salem Kitchen in downtown Kernersville, said of living in Forsyth County.

"I can tell you who is walking by my house at a certain time of day and what everyone is doing.

"It's a great sense of community. That is what I like."

Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jeri.rowe@news-record.com