Oregon ponders future of tree

PORTLAND – Oregonians are talking about using epoxy or cement – so far no mention of duct tape – to mend it. In the end, though, the nation’s tallest Sitka spruce has been so weakened by age and storms that it may go the way of many of its forebears, felled by a chain saw.

The towering 750-year old, 206-foot tree southeast of Seaside, on the storm-lashed Pacific Coast, could fall at any moment.

But residents, fond of the tree known as the “Klootchy Creek Giant,” are offering suggestions on how to save it.

Gordon Trone, a Portland-based contractor, said epoxy may save the tree.

“Epoxy is used in construction to repair dry rot in beams, as long as the dead wood is scraped out first,” Trone, a Portland-based contractor, told the Oregonian newspaper.

Using cement, a technique used to prop up decaying trees in the past, was another suggestion. But foresters say both these methods would likely weaken the tree further.

But there are also Oregonians who want to just let it fall. Daryl Houtman, of Portland, alarmed by news reports that the tree might be cut down, fired off an e-mail to Clatsop County officials and members of Oregon’s congressional delegation, urging them to let nature decide the Sitka’s fate.

“Millions of homes around the world have family photographs hanging on the walls with this tree as the backdrop,” Houtman wrote. “Cutting down this dying tree is akin to filling in Crator (sic) lake because it sprung a leak. … It makes no sense whatsoever!”

Steve Meshke, the Clatsop County parks director, says there have been dozens of calls from Oregonians, many of whom don’t want to see the tree come down. “I don’t know what else we can do; nature has its way,” Meshke said Tuesday.

The massive conifer has a crack that spirals nearly 20 feet long and one and a half feet wide along the trunk.

The tree has survived the lightning-induced scar for four decades but a recent windstorm knocked loose a large chunk and revealed a rotting interior.

The Sitka is an icon in Oregon, a state known for its forests. Logging and milling have been a part of the fabric of life for nearly two centuries.

The tree draws thousands of tourists each year, who turn off coastal Highway 101 onto a single-lane bridge and then into a parking lot not far from the majestic Sitka.

“This is probably the most well-known single tree in the state,” said Paul Ries, a forester with the Oregon Department of Forestry. In a region known for trees and its respect for them, this one sticks out.

Even foresters passed over the Sitka when they were scouting for lumber during World War I, perhaps awed by the giant.

“It’s the largest of its species in the U.S. and the oldest living thing in Oregon. … We cannot preserve it forever,” Ries said.