WHEN HIGH winds this month felled the massive, 460-year-old Wye Oak, the nation's champion white oak, state foresters quickly trucked its trunk and limbs to a secure site -- to prevent looting of its valued remains. Now comes the question of the most appropriate uses for this vivid symbol of Maryland's rich and long history.

State government is taking that question seriously. Last week, the state formed an interagency committee to devise plans by August for using the fallen giant's wood in a permanent memorial, in a statewide educational effort and possibly for various symbols or souvenirs. Suggestions can be sent via e-mail to the following address: wyeoakideas@dnr.state.md.us.

Already, more than 500 people have sent in their concepts for how to use Wye Oak wood -- including crafting a desk for Maryland's governor, a pavilion at the tree's site, or such keepsakes as picture frames to raise funds for state parks. Decades ago, fallen limbs are said to have become judges' gavels and crosses.

It should go without saying that it would be a mistake if this stately being -- having survived so much natural and human history -- were trivialized in its demise by being turned into trinkets. The state committee should make a dignified statement with this wood, one that would be educational and available to all Marylanders.

There's a lot to work with here, perhaps more than 100,000 pounds of wood and more than 100 lawn bags of leaves. The bulk of the main trunk, a single piece of wood, weighs 61,500 pounds. But time is of the essence, as preserving this wood is tricky and costly.

Whatever the committee decides, the Wye Oak lives on. Before its death, scientists had cloned saplings from its genetic material. And state foresters are hoping that sometime in the next four to six weeks the remaining root mass of this great tree will send up a new shoot on its own. It's not likely, they say, but that certainly would be the Wye Oak's finest legacy.