Editor’s note: The Beaufort Three-Century Project presented "Beaufort’s Live Oak Tree Legacy and Community Forestry: Past, Present & Future—A Symposium" Thursday, April 29, in the MacLean Hall auditorium (Building 12) at the Technical College of the Lowcountry. The program – unprecedented in the area – included local and international experts including Dr. Henri Grissino-Mayer (see accompanying interview), one of the world’s foremost experts in the field of dendrochronology (tree rings).

“We were very fortunate to be positioned to bring this level of scholarship to the community through these fascinating presenters—both those among our local experts and those we invited to Beaufort for this special program,” says B3C Project Coordinator Deborah Johnson. “The grant from the SC Forestry Commission certainly helped add credibility and it along with the generous in-kind donations let us keep the registration fee as low as possible to encourage broad participation.”

Dr. Kelby Fite of Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories spoke about preserving and caring for large trees. Liz Gilland of the SC Forestry Commission addressed the importance of community forestry (a timely local subject) while the Clemson Extension’s Laura Lee Rose clarified the proper planting methods for Lowcountry trees. Symposium co-coordinator Michael Murphy opened the presentations with his year-long study of the area’s largest and oldest live oak trees.

Of all man's works of art, a cathedral is greatest. A vast and majestic tree is greater than that.

-   Henry Ward Beecher, Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit, 1870

If trees could talk…

Michael Murphy is an arborist, not a comedian. But as arborists go, he’s a pretty funny guy. He’s the lead-off hitter on the program, presenting the much-anticipated results of his year long survey of Beaufort County’s live oaks, a project form which this symposium ultimately grew.

He opens up with a story allegedly told by the brother of a state politician. While standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon, in absolute awe at the shear spectacle of Nature’s handiwork he’s barely able to sum up the experience with a monosyllabic, “Wow.” A total stranger standing next to him says, “Sure. But have you ever seen the sun set on the Bluff in Beaufort?”

Of course, Murphy reminds the room, the involvement of a politician in this story lends a somewhat dubious nature to its authenticity. The crowd laughs, but the point’s well made.

“Life in the Lowcountry,” he says, “requires a sense of everyday awe.”

It is that sense of everyday awe that attracts so many visitors to our region. Indeed, it has attracted a good many residents as well (yours truly included). A great many things factor into this wonder – all part of the convergence of land and sea, saltwater and fresh, sky and marsh. But perhaps nothing is as ubiquitous as the sweeping expanses of our regal live oaks. Our history has played out beneath their branches. Bluffton’s Secession Oak and the Emancipation Oak on St. Helena Island bear eponymous witness to events that shaped the nation. But for all of our association and identification with the live oak, we still know surprisingly little about it. And the trees do not give up their secrets easily as Murphy ultimately discovered.

During his twelve month quest for the county’s most impressive oaks, Murphy and his Preservation Tree Service crews catalogued one hundred and thirty-six trees and have yet to set foot on any of the vast area controlled by the military. What he hoped to find – something on the order of the Angel Oak near Charleston – has so far eluded him. What he did find were a lot of big trees, most with stories, some with historical references. A journal entry confirms a tree known as The Graveyard Oak was already a giant two centuries ago. The remnants of an ancient tabby wall are strewn beneath the sprawling canopy of an oak known for countless generations as The Trading Tree. Once slaves were “traded” in its shade – if trees could talk, indeed.

Still the question of just how old these trees actually are will likely remain unanswered for some time to come. The only really accurate way to date a live oak is to cut it or core it, something any ethical arborist or forester is loathe to do.  “Like a mysterious woman unwilling to reveal her age, we know that they are old,” says Murphy. “That is the one thing we can agree on.”

And while Murphy hasn’t found his Angel Oak – yet – he did find a tree bigger than the Angel Oak, but without that tree’s famous expanse. Its trunk measures nearly nine and a half feet in diameter while the Angel Oak is just over eight feet. This colossus lords over a forgotten corner of the Cherry Hill Plantation in Burton, the scars of old lightning strikes burned into its limbs. This is one of two privately owned sites available to tour by special arrangement at the conclusion of the symposium. The other – an historic farm site on the bluffs of the Broad River – boasts half a dozen similarly sized trees near the old house.

This afternoon I drive out with my friend and colleague Richard Brooks to see the trees. Being cynical jaded old journalists we are not easily impressed. Right. We spend the better part of the next two hours slack-jawed and humbled in that very palpable sense of everyday awe.

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer.  But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen. -  Henry David Thoreau

If Trees Could Scream…

The timing couldn’t have been any better. In the days leading up to the April 29^th B3C Tree Symposium, Beaufort’s trees were under attack. Literally. Crews contracted by South Carolina Electric & Gas were busy shearing a wide swath through the oaks to clear space around power lines. There were just a few problems, though. Parts of North Street, Ribaut Road and others began to resemble logging camps. Massive portions of the canopy were hacked away. Some of the crews didn’t seem to know what they were doing. “This isn’t tree management,” observed a friend. “This is mutilation. This is tree mismanagement.” When queried by a local landscaper familiar with trees and process, one crew foreman admitted he didn’t even know which species his men were cutting or the proper way to prune it.

Things got heated and confrontational. Mayor Billy Keyserling called a special town meeting the day before the symposium to address the issue. Many of the attendees of that meeting also took part in the symposium the next day where the issue of tree management was the topic of discussion.

“Although this symposium has been in the planning for about a year and the date set for at least 6 months, it was certainly timely as we ‘talk trees’ all across the county,” says Deborah Johnson. “The audience participation was strong with good questions and dialogue.  We were delighted to see so many elected officials, city and county employees, board and commission members.  It bodes well as we make decisions about our treescape for the future.”

So how do we ensure that this sense of everyday awe survives into that future?

“There’s a saying that the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago,” says Michael Murphy. “The second best time is today.”

Get involved with the B3C online at http://beaufortthreecentury.org or call 843.489.1711.

Get more Lowcountry online at www.lcweekly.com and look for us on Facebook.

Mark Shaffer’s email is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Editor’s note: The Beaufort Three-Century Project will present Beaufort’s Live Oak Tree Legacy and Community Forestry:  Past, Present & Future—A Symposium from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 29, 2010 in the MacLean Hall auditorium (Building 12) at the Technical College of the Lowcountry located at 921 Ribaut Road in Beaufort.  Three optional tree tours will be offered following the program, including a guided tour of trees located on private property not usually accessible to the public. The registration deadline for the event has passed, however, last minute inquiries may be made by calling Deborah Johnson at 843-489-1711.

A tall tale

The tree, which moves some to tears of joy, is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way.  Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity and some scarce see Nature at all.  But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself

-  William Blake, 1799, The Letters

One wonders what Blake might have made of a canopy of giant live oaks all dripping in Spanish moss, dancing in the breeze like widows’ dreams.  I like to imagine that as Blake penned those thoughts more than two centuries ago some of the trees that awe us today were already amazing the locals. Rediscovering and documenting this living history has been a passion project for arborist Michael Murphy these last twelve months. He brought the idea of a comprehensive tree study to B3C Project Coordinator Deborah Johnson. “She had a call out for projects to help Beaufort transition into it’s fourth century,” says Murphy. “And the age of our trees has always been kind of a grey area and one that people are interested in.” Apart from running his business, Preservation Tree Care, Murphy’s spent the better part of a year wrapping his measuring tape around the trunks of some of the oldest and largest trees in the state. He’ll present his findings during the landmark B3C symposium.

The event brings together a stellar list of experts, each presenting in a distinctive area of expertise including internationally known biogeographer and climatologist Henri Grissino-Mayer from the University of Tennessee. Dr. Grissino-Mayer’s expertise in deciphering tree ring data (dendrochronology) has been featured in documentaries shown on the History Channel, the Weather Channel, National Geographic Channel and others. An episode of Discovery’s Extreme Forensics followed Grissino-Mayer and his students as they used forensic techniques to analyze wood fragments collected as evidence in a murder case. Their findings resulted in a very CSI-like arrest and conviction.

Grissino-Mayer breaks down the science of dendrochronology as well as the value of old, historic trees in the United States. Joining him on the program are: Kelby Fite, an arboricultural researcher for Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories speaking on large tree preservation; Liz Gilland of the South Carolina Forestry Commission, discussing community forestry; and Laura Lee Rose of Clemson Extension, presenting on local tree planting.  Like one of those big oaks, this all sprang from the nut of Murphy’s simple idea. “Originally the main focus of this whole project wasn’t to have a symposium,” he says, “it was to see if we could find a tree that may have had early settlers beneath it three hundred years ago.”

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanates from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Made in the shade

When I was a boy I was certain the great oaks that canopied the various streets of my hometown were of a species known as “shade.” That’s the name I heard most growing up, “shade tree.” Southerners who can recall the novelty of “conditioned air” know this term. Even within our hermetically sealed, climate controlled homes, true Southerners still value a good shade tree, and, in these parts, live oaks make the best. They spoil us with prime shade – a damn fine commodity with which to be spoiled once summer’s screen door to hell opens. Long stretches of roadways rarely glimpse the sun once spring arrives, veiled in gnarled canopies of oak. Visitors to the old historic neighborhood of The Point in Beaufort marvel at the expanse of the live oak that lords over The Castle – barely an above average specimen, according to Murphy. In fact, there are few things as synonymous with the Lowcountry as these moss-draped giants. Some of them are even kind enough to bend a limb low for a weary traveler to perch on and take shelter from a sultry summer’s day. Like Blake, it is difficult to stand dwarfed in the shadow of such a thing and not try to imagine who and what might have taken refuge beneath it over the centuries – what dramas unfolded within its span of life, leaf and limb?

The short answer is “plenty.” Our history is undeniably tangled in the very roots and branches of the oaks that surround us. Indeed, the tree itself is indelibly attached to a pair of the most important events in Beaufort County.  The seeds of the Civil War took root beneath the Secession Oak in old Bluffton, while St. Helena’s Emancipation Oak is where slaves first heard and still celebrate Lincoln’s proclamation of freedom.  Perhaps no other place can claim two such deeply opposite historic associations with a tree. But the value of these trees – and the value of all of our trees – runs far beyond history and aesthetics.

“There are all kinds of values we don’t think about,” says Johnson. “They reduce energy costs in your home and make your property more valuable.  Trees cool the city and change the environmental footprint in the big global scheme of things. There are all kinds of advantages to trees. Beaufort is a Tree City and you have to work to be a part of Tree City USA®.” The Arbor Day Foundation sponsors Tree City USA® in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters. The program aims at providing support and recognition for urban and community forestry programs. Beaufort’s been a member for twenty years. Hilton Head joined the club eight years ago. Even so, the fate of our treasured urban treescape isn’t always within our control.

The morning I set out to meet Michael Murphy (and do a little tree documentation of my own) I drive down North Street in Beaufort, near the elementary school. For several days now the town’s been overrun with tree service trucks. Men in hardhats ride cherry pickers into the trees to clear branches from the power lines. Half a dozen crews in the employ of SCE&G have been hacking away at the canopy above the few blocks of North from the school to Ribaut Road. I find the timing ironic with Earth Day approaching. A well-dressed older couple assess the damage to the tree tops at the edge of their property. They hold hands, gazing up in disbelief at what can only be described as mutilation. They both look on the verge of tears. Across the street a neighbor has erected a hand drawn sign: Fresh Devastation Wrought By SCE&G. It would appear the power lines are safe for a very long time.

God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease…and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools. - John Muir

Big surprises and bragging rights

Once the word was out that a survey of the area’s trees was in the works, Michael soon learned that in the Lowcountry big trees are like opinions: everyone’s got one and they’re all important.  “We asked the public to call in tree locations,” explains Murphy. “The response was enormous. It was overwhelming.  There were a few duplications, but there were also some hidden away in forgotten corners. We’d often go to visit a tree that had been called in and there was another one right over there.”

He didn’t have to travel far for some of the most remarkable finds. “Some of the best discoveries are right here in Beaufort,” says Murphy. “One is a farm site documented from the early 1700’s. It has four of the largest trees that we’ve measured, and that’s what we wanted to do – find trees that some of our earliest settlers might have walked under.”

A short drive later – and with the owner’s permission – we’re standing where some of those settlers once stood. The old house sits on a bluff of the Broad River shaded by one of the four giants.

“How old is that tree?” The owner prods Michael with a good-natured grin. This is the first of two sites we’ll visit. Both are on private property and the locations remain undisclosed at the request of the owners. Big trees, like rock stars and NBA players, have groupies who often disregard property lines and decorum in the pursuit of their passion.

“Oh, probably around three hundred,” Michael replies after a moment’s consideration.

“That all? I would of thought around a thousand!”

He wonders off amused at his jibe. He’s brought up a good point, though and a frustrating one to some extent. Correctly aging living trees is tricky business. The only accurate way to get the exact age of a tree is to count its rings. There are two ways to accomplish this: take a cross section of the trunk (which means cutting the tree down) or bore through it for a core sample. Easy enough if you’re dealing with a dead or dying tree. Neither are options for this study. Instead, Murphy’s using an aging model formulated by Dr. Grissino-Mayer based on tree samples from Charleston and Beaufort, the latter delivered in person by Deborah Johnson (more on that in Part Two). In essence, he’s examined some really big chunks of old dead trees to document growth patterns, trends and variables on which to base very well educated estimates on the age of living trees.

Like everything else, a well-tended tree grows faster and more lush than one left in the corner of a pasture to the whims of Mother Nature. Downtown Beaufort is a case in point. Photographs from the Civil War era show a city in dire need of some shade. Most of the big trees we tend to take for-granted as having always been here are veritable sprouts in terms of live oak time. “Trees can fool you,” says Murphy. The spread of limbs isn’t always equivalent to the size of the trunk. The famous Angel Oak near Charleston was once thought to be one of the oldest living organism east of the Mississippi at around fifteen hundred years. Its trunk is a tad over eight feet in diameter while the remarkable sprawl of limbs covers seventeen thousand square feet. But according to Murphy, new research indicates the Angel Oak is probably much, much younger. “It’s because it’s such an impressive presentation of a tree,” says Murphy. “It’s had the opportunity to grow and expand while others have not.”

Turns out there are “haves” and “have-nots” even among trees. One of the most surprising finds Murphy turned up was one of those  ‘have-nots” standing in a forgotten corner of a neglected old pasture. With a trunk diameter of about nine and a half feet, it’s the largest and probably oldest tree in the project. Until something bigger turns up, that makes it King of the Oaks in Beaufort County.  From the look of things, His Majesty’s reign has not been easy. This is no pampered monarch. This is a battle-weary sovereign, pruned by time, exiled at the edge of a fallow field. At first glance it’s just another big tree surrounded by scrub and whittled by weather. Murphy’s right. Trees will fool you. The mind needs time to adjust, to process the mass of the thing, the tale of ages written in its wood. And it is huge. By comparison the more famous oak in front of the Castle is only a bit larger than this behemoth’s most impressive limb.

God is the experience of looking at a tree and saying, "Ah!" - Joseph Campbell

“I think everyone who lives here has the sense that we live in a special part of the country,” says Murphy. “Beaufort’s unique in the fact that so much history, culture and natural beauty is concentrated in this one little area and the trees are integral to that.”

So how do we ensure such beauty for the next three centuries?

"There’s a saying that the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago,” says Murphy “the second best time is today.”

Get involved with the Beaufort Three Century Project online at www.beaufortthreecentury.org.  Mark Shaffer’s email is backyardtourist.com