After more than 200 years of life, the huge but unhealthy white oak on the grounds of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, on Old Frederick Road in Mt. Airy, is being taken down.
The beloved tree is being dismantled piece by heavy piece, a process that, because of the tree's massive size, was more than a one-day job.
Mead Tree & Turf began the laborious process of "rigging" branches so they could be removed safely and lowered slowly to the ground Friday morning. Company head Bob Mead said they used seven workers, a 38-ton crane, a 75-foot bucket truck and a 30-yard-capacity wood chipper truck.
By day's end, the chipper truck was almost full, he said, which means about 15,000 pounds of chippings were removed.
That's a lot, Mead said, especially considering only the smaller branches were chipped. The larger branches and part of the trunk were set aside on the church's parking lot to be given away to parishioners for fire wood, mementos and carving material.
The rest of the massive trunk of the tree, a church symbol that was recorded in the Maryland Big Tree Program by the state's Department of Natural Resources in 2008 as being 88 feet tall and almost 17 feet in circumference, will be removed next week, Mead said.
All the chippings will be recycled, likely into mulch, and won't make it to a landfill, Mead said.
The decision to remove the tree was made by the church's vestry in September after safety concerns were identified during a tree risk assessment by professional arborists, including Mead.
The assessment found the tree was "suffering from excessive rot and poses a threat to the people and vehicles passing by," and that it was further weakened by an infestation of borers and a disease known as hypoxylon canker.
Longtime parishioners mourned the tree's loss, but said its death was part of God's plan.
"The demise of our hallowed Oak is a bit disappointing and sad – but as much a part of God's glorious plan as a fall sunset," wrote Senior Warden Jeff Spaulding in a letter to the church community dated Sept. 16.