A recent storm caused a very old White Oak tree to break and collapse in northern Ohio, bringing three centuries’ worth of growth to a conclusion.
The storm, called a “microburst” in meteorological terms, had caused winds of more than 100 miles per hour to ravage the Shaker Heights neighborhood east of Cleveland. Many power lines went down during the thunderstorm, and it left thousands of Cleveland residents without power. At the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes, a fallen tree landed on power lines and hit the transformer.
The saddest result of the storm, though, was the loss of the White Oak. The tree was considered to be one of the oldest in the state, and was a tourist destination at the Shaker Lakes Nature Center. The giant tree snapped at its base and toppled.
This tree was from some time earlier that 1719, according to the Doan Brook Watershed Partnership. The Doan Brook arborists had done a “coring,” which takes out a sliver of a tree to learn its true age from the counting of rings.
This particular White Oak — whose Latin name is Quercus Alba — served as home to over 500 insect species as well. Part of the Doan Brook Watershed Partnership assessment involved inspecting the tree to determine what habitats it was providing and for what types of animals.
The tree also played host to parasitic honey mushrooms. These mushrooms may have been eating away at the White Oak’s roots for more than 100 years. And while the powerful winds that felled this tree could have downed it without the presence of those mushrooms, it certainly could be the case that the parasites helped weaken the base of the tree.
