| Dead
bur oaks |
Lee
Frelich |
| May
16, 2004 17:23 PDT |
ENTS:
It is sad to inform you that one of the great bur oak stands in
Minnesota
is now history. There were about 50 oaks, mostly 6-9' cbh but
some 12' cbh
trees in a grove at the south end of Como Park in St.Paul. They
were very
old oaks that were present 1-2 centuries before the Twin Cities
even
existed. They were on good quality soil and were 70-80 feet
tall, which is
significant for that species this far north. They had the
twisted character
of bur oaks that have lived through hundreds of blizzards and
severe
thunderstorms over the centuries.
A severe thunderstorm downburst last week levelled most of the
stand. Most
of the trees were uprooted, and those few that resisted
uprooting have
severely damaged crowns. The storm also blew the clocks out of
the tower
of the Landmark Center in Downtown St.Paul, which is a century
old,
chateaux-style former courthouse that now houses art and music
museums. The
winds also cleared windows from the skyscrapers and several of
the skyways,
covering the downtown streets with tons of glass.
I was returning to town by car during the storm and saw a
downburst hit a
farmers field to the north of the highway, but managed to drive
fast enough
to pass the downburst before it spread onto the highway. That
was lucky. In
two other recent encounters with downbursts while driving my car
was either
forced off the highway so quickly that I didn't even have time
to react (by
winds blowing across the highway), or was brought to a dead stop
while I
had the gas pedal floored (when winds hit head on).
Bob, Paul, Will, etc. too bad I didn't show you the bur oak
stand when you
visited. It's too late to see it now. There is another stand
nearby that
is equally old but on poor soil, so the trees are much smaller,
and did not
blow down. It has nice character, but lacks the majestic quality
of the
stand that was levelled.
Lee |
|