The passing of a great oak is not something that should be taken lightly.  Not far from my house, one of these noble life forms was brought to the earth, and – although I didn’t know the tree personally – I feel compelled to write a short eulogy in its honor. 

  A combination of small internal forces combined with overwhelming external ones to bring down the centuries old White Oak.  Internally, it was riddled with the passages and tunnels of Carpenter Ants who ate away at the support foundation. Hundreds of generations of these large black ants had chewed away at the stout heartwood -the dark inner support wood of the oak – and robbed it of its essence.

  As trees grow, the outer sapwood responsible for transporting sap to and from the root system is eventually relegated to a crucial support role as time goes by.  Resins eventually build up in the channels and solidify the wood into an iron-like core. Tons of living tissue in the form of leaves, branches and acorns are supported by the heartwood. This White Oak heartwood is legendary for its strength and resilience. The wood has long been on the A-1 list for old time ship builders, barrel makers, and furniture makers.

  Our tree never had to offer up its heartwood for human use, however.  Instead it continued to grow over the better part of 800 seasons and 200 years.  Without the interference of humans, disease, weather or insect damage, White Oaks can reasonably expect to live over 500 years and therefore have the capability of being among the oldest living things on earth. Achieving this rank is not an easy thing to do.

  White Oaks produce acorns every year, but only come out with a big crop every 4–10 years. The parent tree for our fallen giant had to run a gauntlet of factors in order to insure that its seeds survived into tree-hood. Observers have noted that a typical tree can produce over 23,000 acorns in any given season, but from the time they fall from the tree their survival chances begin to take a precipitous plunge.  Ten percent of the acorns are no good to begin with and a most of the rest are eaten by deer, squirrels, or weevils. Of the very few that survive intact (perhaps buried and forgotten by squirrels) only 6% are still able to sprout after six months. This leaves us with only a handful of acorns capable of sprouting the next spring. Of those that do sprout, most of these die from drought, browsing, or disease.

  Given the above statistics, the fact that our oak even became a tree was a miracle in itself.  At every point in its life, there was danger from wind, lightning, disease, or the lumberman’s axe. Since White Oaks are legendary for their attraction to lightning, it is small wonder that the Druids associated them with the God of Thunder.  Oddly enough, they were also known to place an acorn on their window sills to prevent lightning strikes.

  As far as I know, no local Druids gathered at this tree for any ceremonial purpose, but it avoided Thor’s wrath none-the-less.   Slowly but surely, the tree advanced to the stage of a giant along the edge of an open field.  With no nearby competition, the tree was able to spread out its huge side limbs – which became nearly as large as the main trunk. The passage of a road a century ago and construction of a house some 50 years later left it intact.

  How many fox squirrels gathered the annual acorn crop, how many spring warblers sought insects among its branches, how many orioles suspended their basket nests from the branches we can only speculate.  That an incredible amount of minute insect life lived, died, and thrived within the protective canopy there can be no doubt. The generations of Carpenter Ants set up the final act.

  A few weeks ago, a tremendous wind storm whipped through the region. It was Aeolus, not Thor, which rocked the mighty tree beyond its breaking limit.  The unequal balance created by the huge side limbs was no longer supported by the heartwood and the oak tipped to the side and split up the middle (see it here).  This was a fatal wound and the end of a long life.

  A few of the offspring of this tree have survived the initial stages of life’s journey and it is now their job to continue the line.