We have a new home. On First Street. Shaded at the front by two mighty live oaks which the late Sam Rutledge considered to have the cooling effect of a 2-ton air conditioner. It might seem slightly strange that it took a while to find out that we also “own” an enormous and venerable oak located in our back yard – our excuse is that the base of the tree was obscured by a rampant jungly mess of bamboo that has now been cleared. Vice-Mayor Sue Colson tells us that it, quite rightly, is known as the WOW tree, although it could be that this title could be applied to all of the oak trees in the world, given their might and majesty.
To return to “our” tree, Ms Colson says that the trees are always here whilst we humans just come and go - it's a bit like the Patek Philippe slogan: “You never actually own a Patek Philippe watch. You merely look after it for the next generation.”
Oak trees are of course a widespread feature in North and Central Florida and the State grows some 20-25 species out of a world total of more than 400. (And the oak is a member of the beech tree family – who knew?). And, to quote the Nature Conservancy, “ --- trees provide so many benefits to our everyday lives. They filter clean air, provide fresh drinking water, help curb climate change, and create homes for thousands of species of plants and animals.”
A pity then that in the developers' netherworld beyond Archer, despite purported attempts to balance the health of the environment with the depredations of urban growth, oak trees are today more often than not memorialised by the number that have been felled to make way for the ticky tacky little boxes comprising developments with such twee names as Celebration Oaks, Oak Coppice, Oak Forest, or even Oak Pointe.
Back on the island again, it is great to be able to say that the city has an admirable record with respect to conservation through the Cedar Key Heritage Project. The project, starting in 2008, is designed to “identify, preserve, and protect heritage trees and better manage these historic trees now and for future generations.” A tree inventory was initially carried out in 2008 by over 30 volunteers and professional support staff as part of the project.
A total of 162 trees were inventoried, including 101 live oaks and 55 red cedars, and their “passports,” contained in four bound notebooks, can be consulted in City Hall. Each tree is identified by its given number, location, species, photo and vital statistics – diameter at breast height (DBH), height and drip line. (See if “your” tree is listed by consulting the map in City Hall.)
“Our” WOW tree is no. 542 and it has a diameter of 58.5 inches and estimated height of 58ft; its drip line is 105 ft, equivalent to four city lots. Unfortunately, the inventory doesn't answer the immediate question that is asked about the big trees: “How old is it?”, but Joe MacKenzie, Senior Forester with the Florida Forest Service, can help here with this advice: “For an age estimate of your oak tree, determine your tree's circumference, in inches, by measuring the trunk 4.5 feet above ground. Dividing this number by pi (3.14) will give you the diameter. For laurel oak or water oak, multiply the diameter by 3.5. For live oak, multiply the diameter by 4.75. This will give you a rough approximation of the age in years.”
So, on this basis, we get an age for the WOW tree of about 280 years, and a start in life in 1741 - a memorable year that saw the death of Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi and the birth of the alleged traitor Benedict Arnold. This is a tree that was already 35 years old at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was well into its second century when the first train steamed into Cedar Key, and has since survived untold numbers of storms whilst more than a dozen generations of Cedar Keyans have gone about their day-to-day affairs.
Trees nos. 543, 544 and 644, the three live oaks growing in the First Street right-of-way, are mere striplings by comparison, with possible ages of 200 years or so, but a contender for the award for “Best in Show” has to go to no. 550, the burly grandee overseeing the courtyard of the Cedar Key Bed & Breakfast - its DBH of 66 inches and drip line of 108 ft give it a nominal age of around 310 years. Yet another WOW tree!
What to do? Perhaps it would be most appropriate to follow the advice of the Sierra Club, whose founder John Muir spent a few months in Cedar Key in 1867, when “our” WOW oak might already have been 126 years old: “Plant a tree – over its lifetime it will sequester over a ton of carbon dioxide!” (And that's apart from providing a cooling shade canopy for you and me, and a valuable habitat for our wildlife.) Or think about the Arbor Day Foundation – become a member and receive 10 free trees along with free nursery discounts.
Remember that live oak trees grow well in our dry sandy soil; they are typically strong and durable and, as we have seen, have a long lifespan – surely a bargain at $25 for a 1-2 ft live tree and no more than $80 for a 4-5 ft specimen.
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