treehumper dismantles ancient oak, and tells the story.

[guymayor]

This was the saddest aerial inspection I have ever done. A fruitless search for signs of arboreal life.
I'm surprised they are talking about taking the whole thing down. Leaving the bottom 20' as a vine prop seemed like a good idea.

http://www.nytimes.com/…/a-600-year-old-oak-tree-finally-su…

Nice to see the tree's story conveyed accurately. Good work by Rob Gillies explaining what finally did the old girl in.

{the tree responded to the initial “heat stress” by closing off the pores in the rings deep inside, behind the bark. “These shut down, so it doesn’t transpire,” he said. “Then it was inundated” by almost 12 hours of heavy rain. “The roots were soaking because it couldn’t process the water,” he said.}

 

[JD3000]

Damn.

 

[guymayor]

After reading the quote, a typo: Leaf stomata close during drought, NOT the vessels in the wood. The reporter must have been thinking about oak wilt or something...

 

[JD3000]

Figured but still, damn.

 

[treevet]

I used to live in that town after returning from the war in 1971. Very familiar with that grand old oak in the center of the town by the church. Often they brought in a fire truck to water it. It was highly revered. I was working for the local Bartlett office at the time.

The Princeton Oak in the Princeton Battleground was maybe only a little more well known in the area.