A 200-year-old oak survived Katrina but threatens a Coast playground. Will it be cut?
A centuries-old live oak in Fort Maurepas Park stands at the center of a dispute between a group of Ocean Springs residents and their city government.
No one is certain how old it is, but an arborist estimates it has stood for at least 200 years.
Festooned with Spanish moss, the 80-inch-diameter tree survived Hurricane Katrina with only one visible scar: A red and orange tag on its largest branch at 21 feet, the high-water mark.
Today, the tree bends west, stretching its branches to provide shade for a small playground below.
And that’s exactly the problem, according to the city. In November, an arborist asked to inspect the tree found a high likelihood that it would fail, potentially striking children and pedestrians. City officials believe the city would be liable if the tree fell and hurt someone.
After months of discussion, the Board of Aldermen voted on June 15 to remove the tree.
But a group of Ocean Springs residents believe the tree could be saved. They say the board’s decision to cut it down represents a failure to recognize the value of the many Live oak trees that characterize the city.
“Nobody believes in their own individual good judgment that the tree is an imminent threat,” said Don Abrams, an Ocean Springs resident who has advocated saving the tree. “But the city is in this position where they perceive it as a threat and something that has to be acted upon because they can’t find anyone to guarantee that the tree is safe.”
A second opinion
On Monday, residents invited another arborist to inspect the tree and give an assessment. Several residents, Alderman Rickey Authement and Mayor-Elect Kenny Holloway attended.
But his conclusion largely matched the original arborist’s: he recommended removing it because of liability to the playground.
For now, there’s no indication that the board is reconsidering the issue.
At the June 15 meeting where they voted to cut the tree down, Ward 1 Alderman John Gill described it as a threat.
“And as many trees as we’ve cut down up here, for people that thinking that that root is going to hurt their foundation, and we [do] not seriously want to cut this tree when it’s a danger to children?” he said. “I just don’t understand the logic behind why you want to keep the tree.”
An arborist’s report
The tree that withstood Katrina’s storm surge took a beating during Hurricane Zeta.
After the storm, the tree appeared to be leaning more dramatically over the playground. The city closed off the playground and hired an arborist.
On Nov. 24, Ben Kahlmus of Fulghams, Inc. Tree Preservation examined it.
His assessment was grim. The tree’s root system was starting to fail.
“The entire tree failing had a likely failure and impact rating, and a significant consequence of failure and impact giving these tree parts a high-risk rating,” he wrote in his report, which he shared with the Sun Herald.
Zeta’s high winds and the saturation of soil by rain had indeed caused the tree to shift three to four inches toward the playground, he found. But the hurricane was not the primary cause of poor health.
The tree suffers from problems common in urban areas, including soil compaction that reduced the nutrients and oxygen its roots could gather. And the primary cause was the development of the playground and walking path right next to the tree, Kahlmus wrote.
Those features were added in the late 2000s. At that time, a “major support root” was cut to make way for the brick path.
“This type of wound not only lowers the structural integrity of the tree, but it also opens the door to secondary factors (insects, disease, rot, etc),” Kahlmus wrote.
To Ali Robertson, who attended Monday’s meeting at the tree, it is darkly comic that the Live oak is set to be removed to protect the playground that caused its poor health.
“It’s like a comedy of human errors,” she said. “The playground never should have been there.”
Board of Aldermen votes
The Board of Aldermen considered Kahlmus’s report on Dec. 15. They proposed ideas to save it. Could the branches be trimmed to reduce its weight? Could it be stabilized with cables? They tabled the discussion until the next meeting.
By mid-June, at least one of those rescue measures had been attempted. Several of the branches stretching across the playground were cut.
At the June 15 meeting, Alderman Bobby Cox argued that the branch trimming had addressed the danger.
Alderman Rickey Authement questioned the city’s standard requiring an arborist to certify that the tree was safe.
“There’s no guarantee that any tree is gonna stand after a storm,” he said.
Ward 5 Alderman Robert Blackman referenced an opinion the board had received regarding the city’s liability if the tree fell and injured someone.
“We got this legal opinion... last week that scared the hell out of me,” he said. “Because if something happens, and we know about it, there’s no bailing us out.”
Then the board voted to cut the tree. Authement and Cox dissented.
Citizens push back
To the citizens seeking to save the Live oak, the latest decision is part of a pattern of neglect for the city’s trees.
They point out that the position of city arborist was eliminated. And the tree committee, which oversaw maintenance and care of the city’s trees, was dissolved.
Abrams operates an AirBnB in Ocean Springs and said his guests often marvel at the city’s beautiful trees.
“It’s not something we can replace, not within our lifetimes,” he said.
After Monday, the tree’s fate looks set.
City clerk Patty Gaston said in an email that plans to cut the tree down had been put on hold so that another arborist could examine it.
“I held in case he had better news such as bracing the tree, but when that discussion took place, he said you normally brace limbs not an entire tree,” she wrote in an email to the Sun Herald.
Lifelong resident Rachel Krumland said she still hopes the city might find a solution to leave the tree standing and give it time to return to better health.
She has taken her four children to the park for years. But without the shade of the tree, she’s not sure they’ll enjoy visiting in the warmer months.
“The tree was perfect for the benches,” she said. “It’s just a sad situation all around I guess.”
This story was originally published June 29, 2021 at 12:33 PM with the headline "A 200-year-old oak survived Katrina but threatens a Coast playground. Will it be cut?."
