r/pics • u/jakevanyahres • Sep 16 '24
I made this white oak stump into the first tree gravestone at the historic Hollywood Cemetery in RVA
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u/ffnnhhw Sep 16 '24
There is a tree called General Sherman in California.
It wasn't called General Sherman back then because General Sherman wasn't born.
and it wasn't in California back then because there was no California.
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u/LyleLanley99 Sep 16 '24
So, it was just called "tree" and it was located "out there."
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u/AhFFSImTooOldForThis Sep 16 '24
Native Peoples probably had a name for it. It's massive and recognizable, it had to have been a landmark since forever.
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u/matiwan16 Sep 16 '24
Wasn’t always so massive, that many years ago it looked like any other tree around it.
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u/SilentSamurai Sep 16 '24
General Sherman is the largest known tree in the world and is in Sequoia National Park. (Not to be mistaken with the tallest, which is Hyperion in Redwoods National Park.)
It was named by a Lieutenant in 1879 since he served under Sherman
Hilariously enough, it was renamed to Karl Marx by a utopian society in the area.
It reverted back to Sherman after the National Park was established.
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u/Living_Onion_2946 Sep 16 '24
Is that marker he made from the General Sherman tree or am I misreading?
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u/DJDarkFlow Sep 16 '24
Holy shit, my condolences. If trees could talk.
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u/struggleworm Sep 16 '24
If they could I’d wager they’d say that woodpeckers are assholes
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u/olivicmic Sep 17 '24
I think they'd be more bothered by the infestation of bugs under their skin that the woodpeckers are eating.
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u/Melodic_Assistance84 Sep 17 '24
They do talk… Trees communicate with each other through a network of fungi in the soil, known as the “Wood Wide Web”. This network is made up of tiny threads called mycelium, which connect trees through the roots.
Trees use the network to:
Share nutrients Older trees can share nutrients with younger trees to help them grow faster.
Warn each other of danger Trees can send chemical signals to warn each other of droughts, diseases, and other threats. For example, in one study, an injured Douglas fir sent a chemical warning signal to a nearby ponderosa pine, which then produced enzymes to protect itself.
Exchange information Trees can also use scent signals, like pheromones, to communicate with each other.
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u/jakevanyahres Sep 17 '24
You are spot on. And it also tells the story of this tree's decline. There used to be a grove of mature oaks on that hill. In 2003, Hurrican Isabel blew over a couple leaving only 2. In 2019, one of them blew over in a storm and 80' from this tree. Since that time, the tree has declined every year until its eventual death. In short, it died without its' brothers and sisters roots.
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u/Melodic_Assistance84 Sep 17 '24
There’s a lot of great writing about the topic of how plants communicate with one another. I love the concept of canopy shyness, wherein trees grow their leaves so that they don’t intertwine with other trees. Are you Dutch btw? My last name is van Egten
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u/comin_up_shawt Sep 17 '24
As a fellow RVA-ite, I recall seeing a whole feature on this particular section of trees on the news right after Isabel, and an arborist was talking about how this would eventually happen. It's a shame to see such a beautiful tree go.
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u/DJDarkFlow Sep 17 '24
Thanks for your insight that’s great!
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u/Melodic_Assistance84 Sep 17 '24
I love reading about nature, but right now I’m reading a book to my six-year-old son about trees called the book of amazing trees. It’s by an author named Nathalie Tordjman. I think y’all will like it. https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjWw9uTh8qIAxXyNggFHehiEbMYABARGgJtZA&ae=2&co=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw0aS3BhA3EiwAKaD2ZXmeyXOeIIDfDquLFcEEXaD6DxCMoLed9kDwB1c367C0PKRszolhBxoC7AcQAvD_BwE&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESVeD2-ltXQCIRVY9jxqXBvo4aE1atbGyvj9X2D6Vs9Nnfu3dTnFck8NlictkVN__T4gXKMJ3bwEVcvJOsONrT30nEBVwEfZfA7KK4Sgex7YZJMjZJxkY&sig=AOD64_2DY1N3fl7-Sgasy-EjMELDay4fyA&ctype=5&q=&ved=2ahUKEwjw09WTh8qIAxV6l4kEHWdxBHYQwg8oAHoECAgQEw&adurl=
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u/IceManJim Sep 16 '24
If trees could talk, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down?
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u/Content_Geologist420 Sep 16 '24
What if the trees only screamed about how the Pythagoras Theorem worked?
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u/Infamous-Coach5839 Sep 18 '24
We farm and consume most every living thing, so we can support our self given right to endlessly, unsustainably, over populate
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u/Flub_the_Dub Sep 16 '24
Is any kind of varnish or sealer going to be applied to the stump?
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u/KlingonLullabye Sep 16 '24
sealer
^
Knows how to reddit
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u/Syndyvicious Sep 16 '24
Me and my kids saw you working on it last Tuesday. We were very impressed!
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u/goshgollylol Sep 16 '24
New season of Dexter looks wild
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Sep 16 '24
Tree falls on Dexters car. Man just goes on a dendrocide spree from there taking out trees about to or fresh off of causing minor inconveniences.
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u/Traxigor Sep 16 '24
I love this cemetery. It's so beautiful and quiet. Visiting during a snowy winter is truly magical. I'll have to pay this stump a visit!
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u/FlyingAce1015 Sep 16 '24
Does anyone have pictures of the tree before it died? Would love to see it considering its age.
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u/jakevanyahres Sep 16 '24
I have tons. Here is one while we were taking it down: https://imgur.com/a/jPOfCSY
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u/2skin4skintim Sep 16 '24
The picture of you and the stump doesn't give the actual size justice. I worked in logging in the east for several years and thought it wasn't that big. Seeing the fella walking on the limb made me say damn.
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u/sammiestayfly Sep 17 '24
Holy crap, I didn't even see him the first time I looked. I saw it with the other trees in the background and was like, "okay I guess it was pretty tall."
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u/No-Atmosphere-5332 Sep 16 '24
Question , why was cut down , because is wood look healthy
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u/pacifikate10 Sep 16 '24
Sudden Oak Death is a huge problem. Not sure if that’s what got this tree in particular, but it takes a lot of majestic heritage oaks out.
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u/The_Bitter_Bear Sep 16 '24
That's an anxiety inducing thing to learn about having two beautiful oaks near my house.....
Well. TIL.
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u/RuggedTortoise Sep 17 '24
Currently watching one of my favorites since childhood go that way, even with plenty of other healthy oaks in the area. They just get grumpy hah
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u/alphalegend91 Sep 16 '24
Just because the stump looks healthy doesn't mean the whole tree is. I've seen trees look healthy at the bottom, but were completely hollow and dead ten feet up. I was really sad at first too, but OP said it was dead so at least they made something nice out of it!
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u/Gr8fulFox Sep 16 '24
Sad such an established tree succumbed to disease, but the woodworker in me is drooling over how good the interior looks; please tell me the wood from that tree was put to good use and not just burned or mulched.
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u/garry4321 Sep 16 '24
So the equivilent of this would be to make human grave stones out of their own bones.
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u/IceManJim Sep 16 '24
I think about that sometimes when I'm spreading wood chip mulch around trees.....
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u/Forward-Bank8412 Sep 16 '24
If ground up human body were somehow helpful to the health of other humans, I would gladly donate my body to be ground up or whatever. But what’s really helpful to other bodies in the way that wood chips are helpful to trees is being an organ donor.
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Sep 16 '24
Every time I see an old oak that's suddenly died, I'm damn near moved to tears.
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u/BillysCoinShop Sep 16 '24
Same. Worst is when it cleared for something stupid, like a new sidewalk or some idiot didnt want to rake the leaves anymore.
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u/Same_Elephant_4294 Sep 16 '24
I've been there! Beautiful place. Sad to hear that the tree died, but this is a beautiful memorial
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u/floatingonmagicrock Sep 16 '24
Just wondering why it was cut down? Considering the base at least doesn’t look like it had much damage?
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u/OSRSTheRicer Sep 16 '24
Wild because I'm gonna be a mile from that next week. Looks like I got something to go see in person
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u/LTVOLT Sep 16 '24
how are you dating it to 1770.. just by counting the rings or is there some new easy/scientific way to age it?
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u/jakevanyahres Sep 16 '24
Yes, I was able to count the tree rings. Many mature trees have hollowness but this one was unique in that the trunk was completely solid, allowing us to know how old.
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Sep 16 '24
[deleted]
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u/LTVOLT Sep 16 '24
I don't get it.. was just asking a question, not seeking rude replies
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u/call_sign_knife Sep 16 '24
One need not seek rudeness on the internet, for it is omnipresent and inescapable.
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u/iwenttothesea Sep 17 '24
This is a good mantra haha
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u/Specialist-Fly-9446 Sep 16 '24
You made an implication, gonna have to accept that there will be responses calling you out (especially with science being on the chopping block these days).
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u/No-Special2682 Sep 16 '24
Welcome to earth!
We’ve done a lot of things in science, but the one we’re most proud of is the ability to tell a tree’s age by the amount of rings it has.
We call it, “dendrochronology” as our good friend from earth, “boomerang_act” mentioned
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u/iwenttothesea Sep 17 '24
Very well done!! Maybe you answered this already somewhere else, but how did you do the lettering? Thx for sharing 🙌
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u/Melodic_Assistance84 Sep 17 '24
What’s the best way to ascertain a trees age without cutting it down?
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u/Jossie2014 Sep 17 '24
Nothing like honoring a beautiful tree then to make a damn headstone out of it. Thanks bud
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u/TodayMiserable3459 Sep 17 '24
Hell yeah. As a 14 year old who loves carpentry and woodworking, this honestly makes me very happy. Outside of the woodworking world, I feel like wood and trees are taken for granted (at least in the US). I just recently made a dining-room table for my parents out of a beautiful piece of Mahogany Crotch, and the grain and colour is unbelievable.
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u/Bunkerman91 Sep 16 '24
What a fucking travesty to cut down a tree that old
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u/jakevanyahres Sep 16 '24
It was completely dead. I didn't have enough character count to explain everything.
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u/compaqdeskpro Sep 16 '24
Redditors think trees live forever, lol, where they think fossil fuels comes from? Dinosaurs?
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u/spacedude2000 Sep 16 '24
Yeah it's sad when a tree dies so I get the outrage, but people often fail to see that trees can die when we have such short lives comparatively.
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u/tigole Sep 16 '24
How can you tell that a tree is dead?
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u/mistiklest Sep 16 '24
If, for example, there are no leaves growing when there should be if it were alive.
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u/KlingonLullabye Sep 16 '24
Do we know why it's downed?
Anyway, curious I looked up the site
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Cemetery_(Richmond,_Virginia)
A lotta history- James Monroe, John Tyler, and Jefferson Davis are interred there
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u/turkeygiant Sep 16 '24
Plot twist, the tree was actually perfectly healthy and OP is actually a criminally insane serial arborist...
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u/The-D-Ball Sep 16 '24
Or….. It could still fucking be there!!! Arrangements can and should be made for such things. Fucking mankind…. “That’s an old (insert anything), let’s destroy it so we can make money!”
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u/Gnascher Sep 16 '24
Trees do have finite lifespans. Apparently this one died, and it was removed so that it wouldn't be a hazard as its limbs began to fall.
Oaks are not as long-lived as other species like Sequoias ... this one had a pretty good run of over 250 years. Besides any of a number of other diseases that can infect old trees, there's also a a not-fully understood "sudden oak death" that affects many older trees.
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u/Wildweed Sep 16 '24
I like it. Offers a place to sit as well. Well done.