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Century-old oak in Wildwood must come down, arborist says

By Shannon Burkey

There is a wide array of plant and tree life in Wildwood Park, but one of its most majestic and well-known occupants--a nearly 100-year-old valley oak tree--is about to be removed, and will be missed.

Due to years of pruning and paving over the tree's roots, the tree has incurred extensive decay and is a hazard if left in its place in the parking lot adjacent to the park, according to arborist Joseph McNeil.

McNeil was hired by the city to inspect the tree after city arborist Kate Bear and independent arborist Barrie D. Coate performed an initial inspection of the tree over the summer and recommended its removal to the city council. On Coate's recommendation, the council sought a second opinion.

"The current oak is failing because the roots were cut when the parking lot was paved," Bear said. "But another valley oak would be fine to replace it. Valley oaks live for a very long time and a new tree will take many years for the roots to be hindered by the parking lot."

At the Oct. 4 city council meeting, the council heard McNeil's recommendation and voted unanimously to remove the tree and replace it with a new valley oak tree.

"It is time to sadly, but firmly, say this tree needs to come down," Councilwoman Ann Waltonsmith said.

The parking lot where the 105-foot tree resides is a very high traffic area, and according to McNeil, the tree could fail at any time.

"I can not say with certainty when it will fail; I can only say that in my opinion, it is at a high risk of failing," McNeil said, addressing the city council. "I would be very surprised if it were here in 20 years. I would say that there is a 90 percent chance that it won't be."

With those odds, the chances of it failing increase each year, McNeil said.

In his report to the council, McNeil said he found extensive decay throughout the base of the tree and in nearly all the large roots that currently hold the tree upright. In addition, the tree's canopy is half as dense as a tree of its size should be.

McNeil examined the roots of the tree with a resistograph, an instrument used to measure the integrity of the wood by inserting a probe into the root's depth.

"I was expecting 20 to 24 inches of good wood in a tree of this size," McNeil said. "In this case there is about 2 1/2 inches. There is just no sound wood under there."

Because of the extensive root damage, McNeil said, the city faces the risk of the entire tree toppling, not just limb failure.

"Failure can be expected to be sudden and catastrophic, with no warning other than the current poor structural condition of the tree as described," McNeil said in his report. "The tree will not fail gradually or partially, giving time to cordon the area or react otherwise."

McNeil said the high winds and saturated soil usually found during the winter are the types of conditions he would expect the tree to fail in.

As winter is quickly approaching, public works director John Cherbone said the tree could be removed as early as next week, with a new tree being planted a couple of weeks after that.