News of the Arroyo
Title: | Storm proves mightier than oak |
Subtitle: | |
Date: | 2004-11-24 |
Summary: | November 24, 2004 - The famed Bird Fountains, subject of controversy, has succumbed to the forces of time and nature. |
Author: | Gary Scott, Staff Writer |
Publication: | Pasadena Star News |
Content: | 250-year- old tree had been center of controversy PASADENA -- On Saturday, nature did what city officials could not bring themselves to do: Knock down the 250-year-old Bird Fountain Oak, the well-loved but sickly coast live oak on the eastern edge of the Arroyo Seco. Local activists Raymond Dashner and Robert Wittry are convinced death came too soon to the 10,000-pound oak. Had the city intervened to prop up the tree with additional supports, they say, the tree would be standing today. But the unexpectedly wet and windy storm appears to have provided the structural engineering test Dashner and Wittry had called for six months ago. Arborists hired by the city had recommended the tree, heavily decayed from rot, be removed before it fell over on someone. Instead, the city agreed to fence off the area to the public. According to city parks officials, the once mighty oak had shifted 18 inches in the last four weeks and had lost more than 50 percent of its roots. \"The best guess is that the heavy rains over a two-week period finally broke it down,\' said city spokeswoman Ann Erdman. \"It broke right at its base.\' Wittry has claimed vindication, saying he not only predicted the \"landing location\' of the tree but the timing. \"The only thing I did not predict was that we would have a heavy wind and rain on the night of Nov. 20, 2004,\' Wittry wrote in an e-mail. \"But even the weather news was not predicting rain for that night.\' Dashner, too, was crestfallen by the news, but hoped the city would properly honor one of its oldest residents. \"My hope is that they will leave behind the trunk as a memento of this thriving, live tree that withstood the test of time for 250 years,\' Dashner said. \"Remove the limbs, remove the leaves, take away the fence and open up the bird fountain to the public once again.\' Erdman said the remains are too decayed to leave in place. However, she said, the city does plan to erect a proper memorial to the oak, perhaps a series of benches in the arroyo carved out of the tree\'s healthy wood. Gary Scott can be reached at (626) 578-6300, Ext. 4458, or by e-mail at gary.scott@sgvn.com . |
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