I very much enjoyed your column on the Davis-Meeker Garry oak by the airport and share your deep concern for its safety and well being.
Perhaps if it were packaged as a "witness tree" it would gain more attention and respect. There are very few trees left that have witnessed our early history and one along the Oregon-Cowlitz Trail that may be over 400 years old is indeed rare and very special.
I grew up in the east and found few if any witness trees left on the many of the battlefields I visited (Saratoga, Brandywine Creek, Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Manassas, Kennesaw Mountain, etc.). The only one I know of for certain is a sycamore at Antietam Creek (https://tcimag.tcia.org/tree-care/burnside-sycamore-witness-to-history/), which is held as sacred despite being less than 150 years old. Certainly our own 400+ year old Garry Oak witness tree deserves much more care and respect than it is presently getting.
I hope someone is collecting acorns and rooting cuttings before it is too late.
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