Date: Fri 11-Jul-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

oak-tree-Bauta-Mead-Ferris

Full Text:

An Old-Timer Gets A Second Chance: Great Hill Road Landmark Tree Gets New

Lease On Life

BY DOROTHY EVANS

The white oak tree that stands by itself, tall and proud, in a newly cleared

wood lot off Great Hill Road might not be as old as Newtown (incorporated in

1711), but it was most likely alive in 1776 when our country was born.

Its massive trunk and lofty crown bespeak a long history and the passing of

many seasons in that quiet place.

Regular walkers along the shady roadside, or drivers who take the time to slow

down between Winslow Road and Birch Hill Road, might want to stop a moment to

appreciate the old tree in its rejuvenated state.

Since the encroaching undergrowth has been removed, its imposing presence in

the midst of a mature forest offers a sense of peace and permanence.

As old as the Constitution, this Newtown white oak is a survivor. Its owners,

Humberto and Gretchen Bauta of Taunton Ridge Road, have recently taken steps

to ensure that it continues to thrive so that all future Newtown residents may

enjoy it.

A Handful Of Survivors

The Bauta's white oak is one of several trees in the Taunton area that are

approximately the same size, according to Mrs Bauta.

"When the squirrels hid their nuts, they must have gotten lucky with those

acorns," she said.

Somehow, over a period of more than 200 years, the Taunton Ridge white oaks

have escaped the plow, the ax, chain saws and bulldozers. They have survived

the ravages of fire, disease, wind and weather to grow to maturity.

This circumstance seems especially fortunate since as far back as 150 years

ago, 90 percent of Connecticut's old growth forest had been cut down for

firewood, ship building and construction, or to make space for agriculture and

grazing.

It is true that, today, most of the farms are gone and Connecticut is slowly

becoming reforested - but only partially. The sprawling growth of towns and

cities is continually interrupting the green corridor of evergreens and

hardwood trees that once stretched unbroken from east to west, as far as the

Mississippi River.

Most of the forest trees we see today are third growth specimens, no more than

80 years of age or younger.

That these few Taunton Hill area old ones have survived is no small miracle.

Timely Pruning And Clearing

"It's a beauty. It's been there for a long, long time and I wanted it to be

seen. I think it teaches us a lesson," said Mrs Bauta Monday, speaking of the

family's decision to have the oak tree professionally pruned and the land

around it cleared.

Humberto Bauta, a local pediatrician, and his wife, Gretchen, have lived on

their 38-acre property that is bordered by Taunton Ridge and Great Hill roads

for the past 24 years.

Newtown tree warden John Mead said Monday he knew the tree well and had, in

fact, talked with Percy Ferris, owner of Total Landscaping and Tree Service,

the company that spent a day in late May working on the Bauta's white oak.

"It's in pretty good shape. No trunk rot. Just the lower branches were dead or

dying and those were taken off," Mr Mead said.

"The Bautas are very conscientious about their trees," he added.

Would the gypsy moths known to love oak leaves be a future threat? he was

asked.

"No, I don't think so now. The gypsy moths pretty much did themselves in after

the infestation of 1980-81. They were due again in the early '90s, but a

fungus wiped them out," Mr Mead said.

Mr Ferris said that while he and his crew removed what he called "major dead

wood leaders" (lower limbs), it became obvious that no prior work had been

done on the tree. Yet it was in surprisingly "decent shape."

"It's been in the forest for a lot of years," Mr Ferris said.

"My `guesstimate' is that it's at least 225 to 250 years old," he figured.

It probably stood by itself in a pasture or field, which would help explain

how those broad lower limbs, themselves as big as small trees, could have

spread so wide.

"It may have even been a focal point of the old farm," Mr Ferris said.

But in the last 50 years, as the fields were left unmowed, the young trees

began to grow up around it.

Before the Bautas came to Newtown in 1973, the land where the old tree stands

was owned by Frederick Luf, who ran a dairy and chicken farm on 110 acres. Mr

Luf's son, Charlie Luf, was born in Newtown and lives now on Castle Hill Road.

"We used to play around that tree, climbing on the long, low branches," Mr Luf

recalled Monday, adding that "a lot has changed now."

Those dead wood branches were removed, Mr Ferris explained, because they might

eventually have spread disease to the still healthy tree.

An Appreciative Neighbor

Mrs Bauta said there was another person who lived on the other side of Great

Hill Road and was "actually a closer neighbor to that tree than we were."

She was speaking of Josephine Holcombe, who came to Newtown in 1934 with her

husband, the late William Wilson Holcombe.

Mrs Holcombe must have seen the old tree frequently, Mrs Bauta said.

In fact, the two friends had spoken about the tree and the land surrounding it

not long before Mrs Holcombe died on January 19, 1997, at the age of 92.

"She told me, `I want the children of our town to have open space to walk

their dogs, see nature and share the inspiration of trees.'

"I often wondered what made her give her land away," Mrs Bauta said, referring

to Mrs Holcombe's two gifts of 14 acres in 1966 and 62 acres in 1987 to the

Newtown Forest Association.

Mrs Bauta explained that Mrs Holcombe's property, once known as the Fairchild

Farm, included the town's highest point and boasted a 360-degree view of the

surrounding countryside.

"She said she felt a `mystical connection' to her land and after she died, she

was buried there - she felt that strongly about it," Mrs Bauta said, adding

that Mrs Holcombe had been "an inspiration to us."

Honorary director and past president of the Newtown Forest Association, Doug

Rogers, also knew of the Bauta's oak tree and spoke about Mrs Holcombe's

appreciation of it.

"She used to walk her dogs up and down that road," Mr Rogers recalled, and he

mentioned that the tree was obviously an "old-timer," surrounded as it was by

the many "stone fences" that Newtown's earliest settlers built to mark their

boundaries and keep the cattle in.

How Big And How Old?

The Great Hill Road tree measures 16 feet 6 inches in circumference at a point

four and a half feet above the ground - a considerable size when one remembers

that the white oak is the slowest growing tree of all species.

Since the white oak is Connecticut's state tree, and since there is always

friendly competition among the 169 towns to see which town holds the biggest

and the oldest trees, people pay attention to such measurements.

The Connecticut Botanical Society has published a book titled Connecticut's

Notable Trees by Glenn D. Dreyer that lists and describes some of the

outstanding specimens.

For example, the oldest and largest known white oak in the state has been

found in a field in Sharon, off Amenia Road. It measures 21 feet in

circumference (at the standard measuring height of four and a half feet).

Brookfield has a notable specimen along Federal Road that measures 19 feet in

circumference, but it was severely damaged on one side during the construction

of a fast food restaurant and parking lot that was laid down very close to its

mighty trunk.

New Milford boasts the Washington Oak on Gaylord Road, also measuring 21 feet.

That tree ranks right up there with the state's biggest - its notoriety coming

from a supposed meeting that occurred under its branches in 1780 between

General George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette.

Speaking of generals, it is said Rochambeau encamped in Newtown in 1781, and

who's to say he didn't take a brief detour for a picnic lunch in the field

nearby the Great Hill oak, when it was just a sapling?

If you want to see one of the oldest white oak trees, you'll have to leave

Connecticut.

Travel to Talbot County, Maryland, and view the Wye Oak, considered the

nation's oldest and biggest. It measures 32 feet in circumference and is

estimated to be 400 years old.

Clearly, Newtown's Great Hill Road oak tree has some more growing to do and

thanks to the Bauta family, we might have a state record in a few years.

But when we're looking up at those lofty branches and listening to the quiet

rustle of thousands of leaves in the summer breeze, who's counting inches?