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TT: special trees

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The discussion about special individual trees is fun.  Somehow recognizing the
"personhood" of trees as living beings infuses other tree issues- from urban
forestry to logging of old-growth stands- with more depth of meaning.  

Our home in Sonoma County, California is a tiny house umbrellaed by a glorious
Valley Oak (Quercus lobata) that stands just in front (north side) of the
house and arches its strong, mossy branches across the roof.  We wake in the
morning looking into it through the bedroom skylight and often climb out of
bed to sit in the hot tub in the back yard and watch the early morning birds
busy in the universe of its crown.  The back yard, south facing and unshaded
by the tree, has a completely different climate from the front, and the
temperature gradient creates a gentle breeze through the house on the hottest
summer day.  When I travel, I say goodbye and hello to the tree and really
feel that my family is safe in its magic presence.  

Our friendly insurance agent came to take pictures of the house as the last
step in getting us underwritten by State Farm- when he arrived he took one
look and told me sadly that State Farm won't write a house with an overhanging
tree.  I blurted, "but the tree is our guardian spirit!"  It must have made an
impression on him because he told my husband very sincerely that he knew that
the tree was our guardian spirit, but State Farm didn't understand.  

I worry that at some point we will move and sell the property and have to
leave the tree behind.  I can't conceive of doing this without being sure that
we have left it protected from all chance of harm.  Valley Oaks can be killed
by irrigation (they are an endemic species adapted to our Mediterranean
climate with its seasonal rainfall).  Worse, the property is zoned to allow
multi-family housing, and the land may be worth more than the existing house.
There is a new city ordinance to protect Valley Oaks specifically, but it
allows the landowner to cut trees in exchange for a variety of mitigating acts
including planting seedlings on other property.  Obviously, while this may or
may not protect the species, it is not enough protection for our beautiful
friend.  

Does anyone have any information on protective covenants or other ways of
building protection for individual trees into a deed? 

By the way, I've been lurking on TreeTown for a long time and thoroughly
enjoying it. My husband and I have a small consulting business helping
businesses with waste reduction and recycling.  In former lives I have worked
as a zoo keeper and as a native plant horticulturist for a botanical garden,
among other things.  I am generally a pretty pragmatic and "rational" person,
and I'm not even from California (Nashville is my other home): my sense of our
Valley Oak's spirit comes not from some "new age" romanticism but from some
place deeper and more personal! 

-Connie Cloak


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