Dimond residents say goodbye to treasured oak

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Nov 20, 2005 | by Laura Casey, STAFF WRITER

OAKLAND -- There is no saving the leafy green canopy of one of Oakland's oldest oak trees.

Within the next few days, the great oak in Dimond Park will have its canopy snipped by tree service employees. And it is likely that within the next few months, the tree will be cut down entirely.

"There is always going to be a risk as long as that tree is in place," said Dan Gallagher, an arborist with the city and supervisor of Oakland's tree services, a division of the Public Works Agency.

Dimond Park's "Champagne Oak," named after the champagne bottles stored in it by members of the pioneering Dimond family, is dying. Gallagher said fungus is rotting its wood and hastening its decomposition. Only 17 percent of its trunk tissue is left, he said, one-third of what is needed to preserve a tree.

"If you can imagine it, the tree is like a hollow tube 60 feet in diameter with only 3 to 6 inches of support inside it," he said.

It could fall and injure Dimond Park users who walk the paths that surround the stately tree or damage the storage building beside it.

While most people agree Dimond Park's oak is one of the oldest trees in the city, no one knows exactly how old it is. Gallagher suggests it is 100 to 150 years old. An Oakland Tribune article on June 18, 1955, said the tree was Oakland's oldest and largest oak, and it was estimated to be 200 years old at that time. Some Dimond residents say the tree could be even older, 500 to 1,000 years old.

Regardless of age, it is one of the neighborhood's most revered senior citizens. And Dimond district residents and city leaders are struggling to find a way to honor the oak as its life ends.

Councilmember Jean Quan (Montclair-Laurel) reserved about $15,000 to spend on the tree. She said she would have liked to find a way to save it, but three arborists have said there is no way the oak can remain standing.

She solicited ideas from stakeholders at a meeting about the tree Wednesday night.

Dimond resident Michael Thilgen suggested cutting off nearby access and letting the tree fall naturally. Then, he said, the city could fund an educational display on the process of the tree's natural deterioration.

Maxwell Park resident Ralph Kanz, who supported the idea of the public having educational access to the tree as it decomposes, suggested removing the tree in one large chunk and putting it in another part of the park.

Resident Mark Rauzon wanted the city to find a way to save it entirely.

"There is no oak like the oldest oak in Oakland," Rauzon said. "This is a question of values, I believe."

Quan directed her staff to find a place to put the bulk of the tree so people could watch it decompose. The oak may be cut three feet up from its base so school children can see inside it. A plaque or a picture of the tree may be placed where the oak once stood.

A celebration of the tree, honoring it before its canopy is cut, will be held at 1 p.m. today at Dimond Park, 3860 Hanly Road.