Fort Lauderdale's Bicentennial Liberty Live Oak Tree (Revision)

The City of Fort Lauderdale’s Bicentennial Liberty Live Oak tree, located adjacent to the Riverwalk area within Bubier Park, is approaching 250 years and I recently uncovered a trove of information and photographs documenting the tree’s relocation, providing a unique look into the past.

Live Oak Tree: September 1976

The live oak tree was donated to the City by Judge Robert O’Toole in early 1976 at over 200 years old. It was originally located near southeast 1^st avenue and southeast 6^th street in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The tree weighed over 50 tons and had a height of 30-35 feet and an average spread of 50-feet. Its relocation was considered to be the largest successful bare-root transplant of a tree in the world at that time.

The City’s then Urban Forester, Mike Moore, coordinated the relocation and preservation of the live oak tree. It had to be root pruned and braced before transport. The project was a massive undertaking and required coordination from multiple entities including the Florida Forest Service, FPL, Eller Company, Powell Brothers and Koch Towing Company. At one point, the City’s Fire Department was also called in to help free the tree roots from coral rock after a cable snapped during transport. After five months of preparation, over 40 personnel, a flatbed truck, and river barge along with three broken 155 ton steel cables the tree was successfully relocated on September 8, 1976.

On June 27, 1978, the live oak tree was renamed the Bicentennial Live Oak Tree as part of the dedication for the Robert H. Bubier Memorial Park. It was later renamed the Bicentennial Liberty Live Oak Tree, with installation of an official plaque, at a ceremony on September 11, 2002 in remembrance of the September 11, 2001 horrific events. Disney World’s Liberty Tree served as the original inspiration for the plaque dedication and wording as authored by Doug Eagon of the Stiles Corporation.

Today the Bicentennial Liberty Live Oak Tree is still doing fairly well at almost 250 years. Significant work was done to improve the tree’s overall health and vitality after impacts from a storm in August 2017. With such a historic past, the City will continue ongoing tree management efforts to preserve the tree well into the future!

Live Oak Tree: September 1976

Bicentennial Liberty Live Oak Tree Today

Hurricanes, Storms, and Your Landscape

As we are in the middle of hurricane season I am reposting an article I co-authored with my good friend Mark Torok from the Florida Forest Service (FFS) tackling the tough questions around tree care and storms.

Hurricanes, Storms, and Your Landscape

by

Mark Torok, FFS Senior Forester

Mark Williams, Treemendous Consulting Group

Living in Florida, sooner or later, given its history, your landscape is going to be exposed to high winds either from a hurricane, tornado or a storm. So what can be done to minimize wind damage in your Florida landscape?

 

For starters, have your existing trees inspected annually and/or structurally pruned by an ISA (International Society of Arboriculture) certified arborist who is also licensed and insured. To find an ISA certified arborist in your area, you can use the “Arborist Search” on the ISA website at http://www.isa-arbor.com/findanarborist/arboristsearch.aspx. Having your trees inspected annually (risk assessment) and structurally pruned every 2-5 years will help the trees become more wind-resistant by eliminating or minimizing structural defects such as cross branching, decay, codominant stems, deadwood and included bark in the trees.

 

If you are thinking about redoing and or enhancing your landscape, plant more wind resistant trees. Just like people, all trees are not the same; some are more wind-resistant than others. In general, trees species that are wind resistant are also good compartmentalizers. Good compartmentalizers are tree species that can recover well from wounds and that seal them off effectively preventing the spread of decay. Even trees that are in the same family can vary on how well they compartmentalize. For example, live oak trees are very wind resistant and great compartmentalizers while laurel oaks/water oaks are very poor compartmentalizers and not very wind resistant trees.

 

Another way to make your landscape more wind tolerant is planting trees in groups. In a natural forest setting, winds normally blow over a stand of trees instead of blowing through them unlike the total exposure faced by an individual, open-grown tree. Grouping trees together in tree islands/communal plantings simulates how trees grow naturally and mimics the buffering effect of trees within a natural forest community. But remember to use minimum tree spacing requirements which are typically planting trees at least 15-20 foot on center for tree species that develop large canopy crowns. In order for a tree to develop proper taper a certain amount of wind exposure is also necessary. Some examples of Florida native tree species that are often found growing in groups include slash pine, bald cypress, live oak and sabal palm.

 

Addressing any root defects that may be present before planting will also aid tree establishment and help ensure a well anchored root system.  Some additional information about tree root pruning is available at: (http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/roots.shtml). Remember to plant your tree slightly above grade, install the recommended bracing system and to remove any circling, plunging and girdling roots that are present. The use of Florida Grade No. 1 (Grading Standard for Nursery trees set by FDACS) or above rated trees is also recommended as these trees are of high quality with excellent structure. Trees of this grade typically have greater vigor, establish faster and are free of structural defects commonly present on poorer quality/lower grade trees. Some additional information on proper tree planting and bracing is available at: ( http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/planting2.shtml).

 

 

Here are some high wind resistant native south Florida trees:

 

Gumbo limbo              Green buttonwood     Geiger tree

White stopper             Redberry stopper        Spanish stopper

Lignum vitae                Dahoon holly                Krug’s holly

Black ironwood           Bald cypress                   Pond cypress

FL silver palm              Cabbage/Sabal palm   FL thatch palm

Key thatch palm          Myrtle oak                     Live oak

Sand live oak

Here are some medium-high wind resistant native south Florida trees:

 

Pond apple                    Satinleaf                        Royal palm

Pigeon plum                  Wild tamarind             Sweetbay magnolia

Mastic tree                    Paradise tree               West Indian mahogany

 

References

Duryea, M.L. 2008. Trees and Hurricanes. Website: http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/treesandhurricanes/index.shtml of the University of Florida Cooperative Extension Service. Gainesville, FL.

 

Gilman, E. 2005. Tree selection for landscapes. Website with 680 Tree Fact Sheets: http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/planting/TreeSelectionIntroduction.htm of the University of Florida Cooperative Extension Service. Gainesville, FL.

 

Crawford, P. 2005. Florida Gardening Series, Volume 3 – Stormscaping: Landscaping to Minimize Wind Damage in Florida. Color Garden Inc. Canton, GA. 168 pp.

Trees and Wildfires

Trees face many challenges including pressure from overdevelopment, climate change, exotic pests/diseases, storms etc.. One of the most noticeable environmental challenges is wildfire. Fires are often created in nature due to drought conditions and lightning strikes. Fires can also be caused indirectly from human activities and something as small as a flicked cigarette butt in the wrong place can cause a devastating fire.
While fires can be disruptive and dangerous certain species of trees have evolved to tolerate and in some cases require periodic fire events to reproduce and thrive. The US Forest Service along with many State forestry agencies routinely conduct controlled burns to help eliminate undergrowth and improve the health of forests. The National Forest Foundation further discusses how trees thrive and survive in fire prone areas.

Image used courtesy of Mike McMillan/Spotfire Images

Image used courtesy of the Government of Alberta

Vertical Forests

The typical urban environment includes many challenges for establishing a proper tree canopy. Limited space, utility and infrastructure conflicts, pollution, disease and inadequate root and canopy space are some of the more critical ones. These challenges have compelled Urban Foresters to seek out technology and outside the box thinking when it comes to finding places to plant trees. Silva cells, mounded planting, structural soil and use of the right tree in the right place has helped provide solutions for these challenges.
Recently architects and designers have found new places to start planting trees: on rooftops and within multi-story buildings. An article by Fast Company covers this latest trend. When dealing with an ever changing urban environment finding new places to plant trees should always be a priority as they provide a wealth of health and environmental benefits.

Image used courtesy of Fast Company

Image used courtesy of Inhabitat.com

 

Visual Indicators of Tree Stress

How can you tell when a tree is under stress and requires attention or maintenance? Tree stress can be caused by both environmental and manmade factors including: droughts, lightning strikes, excessive rain and wind, construction damage, utility trenching, and a host of other factors.   Some typical visual stress symptoms include sudden leaf drop, unexpected leaf color change (green to yellow or brown), canopy and/or branch wilting, amounts of dead twigs suddenly increases and sudden branch or twig drop. Ensuring your tree is inspected annually by an ISA Arborist for defects, stress, and nutritional needs is a simple way to help keep your trees healthy and green.


For information on some of the most common tree stress signs and causes, please read this AccuWeather article.

Image used courtesy of askextension.org

 Image used courtesy of TCN Journal

Image used courtesy of Staytoevents.com

 

The Future of Street Lighting and Trees

Trees and light poles/fixtures are commonplace along most streets in urban environments. While they both provide ample benefits related to quality of life and security, trees are highly regarded for their environmental attributes. However, it is not unusual for the positioning of tree canopies to conflict with safety and required on-street/pedestrian level lighting.
Older style light poles require significant maintenance to replace bulbs, which are often energy inefficient, and keep them clear from existing tree canopy. Efforts are currently underway to retrofit existing light poles with LED’s, incorporating smaller acorn light fixtures and pedestrian up-lighting into tree pits to avoid canopy conflicts. With technological advancement, research is also ongoing to potentially turn trees into light sources using bioluminescent (production of light by a living organism) genes.
How amazing would it be to have a tree lined street lit up at night using only the trees themselves! Bioluminescent animals, ferns and insects already exist in nature. According to a Fast Company Article, researchers are trying to isolate the gene that makes microalgae glow for the purpose of genetically engineering trees into natural streetlights. If successful, this could have a significant impact on future energy savings as their will be less reliance on electricity, use of traditional up-lights, and light poles along streets.

Watering New Trees

To plant and establish new trees, there are many factors to consider. Proper planting depth, bracing, and slow release fertilization are all important aspects of this process; however, tree watering is the most essential.
 
Newly planted trees suffer from over or under watering all too often. Thankfully, technology has evolved to help rectify this problem. Tree bladders were created as a way to reduce labor costs for tree establishment, and to also ensure new trees are sufficiently watered. They slowly release water over time ensuring that the rootball of trees are watered evenly and at a steady rate, typically only requiring replenishment once or twice a week. This process promotes water conservation and sustainability by saving water and money. Tree bladders are also reusable, further increasing the can provide a potential for cost savings well beyond their initial use. To learn more about watering new trees and different types of tree bladders please see below:

 

Image Used Courtesy of Tree Gator©

 

Image Used Courtesy of Tree Gator©

Image Used Courtesy of TreeDiaper©

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ep113

http://www.treegator.com/products/original/index.html

http://www.treegator.com/products/jrpro/index.html

https://www.treediaper.com/about-products.cfm