Oak Parkers love their trees. For some, the trees that adorn their yards are like members of the family, bearing silent witness to celebrations including children’s birthday parties, high school prom photos and college send-offs.
That is certainly the case for Jim and Sally Prescott, who have raised five children in a house on Forest Avenue shaded by a stately, old bur oak. Sadly, the 200-year-old tree has become so fragile that it must soon be taken down. On Sunday, Sept. 28 the Prescotts held a celebration of life to honor the venerable old tree.
“The tree needs a little love from people,” said Sally. “I wanted it to be recognized. I didn’t think it was fair to the tree to cut it down before people had time to mourn it.”
Over the past five years, the Prescotts made a valiant effort to save the tree, which was weakened when a substantial branch broke off several years ago. They had the tree treated, at great expense, by an arborist who injected nutrients into the ground around its base.
“Our block is so well-traveled by residents and international tourists. I remember once several years ago a young couple approached me when I was doing yard work and thanked me for not cutting down the tree like so many people do. It was a reminder of how much people appreciate big, old trees,” said Sally.
But this summer when they saw that the tree’s foliage was very thin and it was prematurely losing leaves, they knew their efforts were a lost cause and that it was unsafe to keep it standing.
They consulted with Grant Jones, Oak Park’s forestry superintendent, who is responsible for caring for the village’s more than 18,000 trees. He confirmed that the tree was so diseased that it could no longer pull enough water from the ground to nourish its canopy.
The Prescotts’ next-door neighbor, Carollina Song, will mourn the tree’s loss. “I am just gutted,” Song said. “Our daughter and the Prescotts’ youngest daughter used to run back and forth between our yards in the shade of that tree. I know how hard it is to lose it because we’ve lost a couple of our own trees.”
When Carollina and her husband, Alec Harris, lost a magnolia tree a few years ago, Sally gave them a glass remembrance box containing a small part of a branch with buds, a priceless reminder of their beloved tree.
Jim Prescott said they intend to get cuttings from their tree and use them to make furniture, such as bookcases and chairs, for their home.
They are planning to replace the tree as soon as possible. Their son, Will, is a landscape architect and is giving them ideas. They expect to have a new tree in the ground before it gets cold.
Trees are testaments to a past we cannot know and investments in a future we typically don’t live to see. During Sunday’s celebration of life, Sally handed out acorns from the bur oak and invited people to plant them.
“It makes me feel better to know that the tree will live on,” she said.