Georgia over at the local ecologist writes about trees and street trees and urban trees a lot. She had a post on The Tree Year…choose a favorite tree and follow it for a year. I thought…hmmm…yes, good idea. Unfortunately I can’t choose just one tree but most of my favorites are the old oaks still sprinkled around town like ancient sentinels, witnesses who have been standing around long before those wagon trains and boats arrived with settlers. Friends of the native population, place markers maybe, or just part of the massive oak groves that once covered this valley land. They are now “inconveniently located” in people’s front yards or pulling up the sidewalk. For my tree year I’m going to find some of my favorites and take some pictures. They are the trees that when I wend around town on errands I see and think “that is so beautiful…I bet it will come down soon…” So to start here are two, the first on 14th street just south of State in a dicey neighborhood of group homes, standing majestically, seen daily by me and hundreds of others who might not notice how totally beautiful it is…
and then when we were over at the coffee place sitting outside (!)
I looked up at this nice tree
Keep your eyes peeled for the oaks…let me know if you spot a good one!
On The Way 
I still mourn the cuts of the ancient filbert trees in back of our house on Bush St. (lived there for 17 yrs.)after we moved. They were part of the original Bush family orchards. Trunks looking like huge pulled taffy, they sheltered and cooled the house…no need for air conditioning. During art fair each year, friends would stop in just to cool off. Returning once to the house after they had been cut, it was so hot, though early spring. Wonder if they regretted their hasty destruction.
That’s a great tree on 14th street! Here’s a piece on the house next to it – it was a Sanitarium for a bit. It’s hard to tell for sure, but the clip from a century ago appears to show a much younger version of the tree.
Along Marion between 13th and 14th are several more.
Wow – this is a great idea, and you have found some great trees to monitor. For us, we keep our eyes out for the 180 year old oak in our backyard, leaning as it does toward the house….
Thanks for the shout-out Bonnie.
Sad about that big old tree.