Along Territory Road

The majestic Monterey Cypress trees that border the properties midway along Territory Road in Oysterville have been a part of my life forever.  For almost eight decades now, I’ve taken them for granted.  We all have, I think, to the point that until thirty or forty years ago there were still arguments as to what kind of trees they were exactly.

At the time Oysterville citizens were applying for their designation as a National Historic District in 1976, there were still two stories.   Beulah Slingerland Wickberg who was born in Oysterville in 1894 was sure that they were “Cedars of Lebanon” and that her parents had brought the seedlings back from their mission in Africa.  Charlotte Jacobs, a descendent of the Oysterville Andrews Family, said they were Monterey Cypress trees and that her great-great uncle Tom Andrews brought the seedlings back from one of his trips to California in the early 1900s.

Although there is no documentation for Charlotte’s story, there is little doubt that it is true.  The trees are, indeed, Monterey Cypress, native to the central coast of California where some have reached the venerable age of 2,000 years – this despite the strong winds which stunt their growth, distort their silhouettes, and give them a flat-topped appearance.  Here, in Oysterville, they grow taller and bigger around, approaching the forty meter height and two-and-a-half meter circumference that is possible in ideal growing conditions.

Recent Storm Damage

When Tom planted the trees, he was living in the house now called “the bottle house” so it is no accident that the trees are centered in that area of the village along the perimeter of the property, now divided and owned by several families.  I doubt that he gave much thought to the exact placement with the result that many of the trees are partially on private property and partially on the county-owned verge.

Traditionally, the adjacent property owners have taken care of the trees, trimming away the ‘widow-makers’ and seeing to it that there was safe passage below them.  By the turn of this last century, the branches had grown far enough horizontally that they threatened the electrical lines on the opposite side of the street.  The residents of the village worked with the PUD to install underground wiring so that the limbs would not need to be cut.

Arborist at Work

But… time marches on and shit happens, as they say.  The trees have grown immense – far beyond what the homeowners can deal with.  Too, age and winter storms have taken their toll.  Not a winter has gone by recently that one or more branches haven’t come crashing down – fortunately not causing serious damage to persons or property.

For a half dozen years or more, village residents have worried and discussed and argued about what to do.  Pruning specifications according  to  the American National Standards Institute and Safety Requirements for Arboricultural Operations Best Management Practices were developed.  Meetings were held.  Donations were made.  And now the work has begun.

After the Surgery

It will take another week or more to finish the job – to make the trees safe and to guard their health, hopefully for another hundred years or more.  Climbers are cutting out the dead branches, ‘lightening the sail’ and accomplishing other carefully plotted maneuvers designed to preserve the trees and to save our distinctive streetscape.

Even so, each day as the gigantic chipper thrums and the chainsaws whine, I can’t help an involuntary shudder or cringe.  And when I saw the amputation done to one of the most needy trees, my heart broke a little.  I know Territory Road won’t be quite the same ever again.  But it will be a safer place to walk or drive.  I hope I can come to grips with that being the bottom line.