A farewell to the tree

This morning, at the Sunland Tujunga Library, there will be a small ceremony to bid farewell to the old oak tree.  The tree, as far as we can tell , was well over 100 years old.  It has been dying for years, despite our best efforts to help it.    It's sad, really and we will gather together today to read a few poems ( Sunland is one of the few places with a Poet Laureate)  and we will take a moment to honor the tree and it's loss in our community.

When we rebuilt the library, we had to build around the tree. Live Oaks are protected in California and there are a ton of specific rules in the care and feeding of the tree.  There were a number of factors in the demise of the tree, so I am not going to call out any one thing, but I am personally sad to see it go.  For a while, we were treating it and it seemed to be fighting back, but nothing lives forever.


We will be planting new trees .  There is a quote, attributed to Confucius."If your plan is for one year, plant rice. If your plan is for ten years, plant trees.  If your plan is for 100 years,educate children.  At the Library, we are not planting rice, but we are planting trees and educating our children.  If you want to be part of the ceremony, it will start around 9 am.