The Great Oak Tree loses a limb*
                                                                                  Winter, 2002

A few years ago, visitors to the garden noticed an immense and striking change in the mature forest area.  Next to our famed and beloved Great Oak Tree, meeting center and home base for most of our educational programs, lay one of its massive arms, no longer standing tall and proud in the air but napping humbly on the forest floor.  The giant limb came crashing down one night, ripping out a large part of the trunk as it fell.  How could this happen?  There was much speculation on that topic, but in light of the fact that there was no inclement weather that day, it was determined that the tree's arm just became too heavy for it to hold up in its old age.

We decided to leave the arm in place so that it could be used by human visitors to explore the treetop from the safety of the ground and learn more about what goes on in the parts of a tree that only those of us who climb or fly may reach.  The limb was cut in a few places to make it more balanced and stable, and then it became a staple part of our fall elementary environmental education program.  We also wanted to make sure that this wasn't the first in a series of crashing limbs, so experts were called in and suggested cabling a few other large limbs, which we were able to do thanks to the generous contribution of a special friend of Boxerwood.  This allowed us to continue using the Great Oak Tree and area underneath it as a place to learn, play and bask in the glory of nature.  

While a few of us may have lost our homes in those high branches, the cover created by the downed limb and the exposed wood of the trunk have created many new homes for different creatures, those that prefer to live closer to the ground.  We thank the Great Oak for giving us this unique opportunity to gain a new perspective on the forest.

* Since this was written, we've determined that the Great Oak is actually made up of several oak trees that have grown so close together that they have "fused."  So, what fell was actually one of the trees!