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The majestic old Oregon white oak tree across from Beach Elementary School has been a staple of the Overlook neighborhood since its inception, and approximately 200 years before that. It’s enormous and stands right up against the small home on North Humboldt Street that Megann McGill and her husband bought in 2020. Before they moved in, they had multiple arborists come evaluate the tree’s health.
“They said, ‘Looks good! Could live 50 to 100 more years.’”
Those estimates proved to be optimistic. A fungal infection on the tree’s base and extending deep into its root system called oak bracket will fell Heritage Tree No. 19 just four years later. A few weeks ago, McGill received a notice from the city of Portland that the Oregon oak must be removed within 30 days. It will cost her about $20,000 to $35,000 to take it down.
She wept, for all the reasons.
“It’s devastating,” she says. “My husband and I cried on the phone when we were talking about it. We would be devastated regardless of anything else, but also the financial aspect of it is significant. Both pieces together have made this a really tough thing for us to be able to process.”
To help the McGills in their grief, and to give the Overlook community one final gathering at the grande dame of an oak tree, they are throwing Heritage Tree No. 19 a celebration of life this Sunday, Oct. 6, from noon to 5 pm.
McGill is inviting the community to bring blankets, sketchbooks and cameras and gather to lie under its branches, sit by its trunk, and share stories and memories. They will play games, inviting guests to guess the diameter of the trunk and the age of the tree, the latter of which they will determine by counting its rings after it comes down in the next few weeks.
McGill will provide paper and crayons for attendees to do rubbings of the bark, leaves and its heritage tree plaque. There will be a stepladder for people to peer up into the crack in its base to see the fungi. Reports from arborists and Portland Parks & Recreation’s Urban Forestry division will be on hand, too, “because folks have questions,” she says.
McGill has no hard feelings toward the city, who called the tree “dangerous” in the letter mandating its removal.
“We agree, now that we know everything going on,” McGill says. “The school buses park across from our house, so it is not safe. But it is this icon.”
(The city also thanked the McGills for being part of the Heritage Tree program and said they were “saddened” by its loss. “The tree was a source of shade, beauty, a suite of ecological benefits, and a living legacy of community history,” they said.)
McGill hired an arborist to do a sonogram of the roots earlier this year and found they were already 20% compromised then. It’s certainly more since an “explosion of fungus” around the base of the tree occurred over the past nine months. The arborists said the decline is partially due to climate change—the native Pacific Northwest tree is not equipped to survive the drastic heat waves and cold freezes we regularly experience now.
Despite the unexpected expense, the couple is not posting a GoFundMe or asking for money at the celebration of life.
“It’s ours to take care of, and it’s our community’s to enjoy,” McGill says. “That’s the approach we’re taking.”
