A certified champion, Phillys Great Beech is dying, over 150 years after it was planted – WHYY

On my second visit to The Great Beech, I went with Christina Moresi and Stephanie Robinson, environmental educators with the Wissahickon Environmental Center. Moresi, who has worked at the park for 15 years, shared Lubars belief that the trees lifespan was shortened by people interacting with it. She did not, however, share his outlook. Moresi explained that with stormwater rushing in from the parking lot and visitors disregarding park policies, there wasnt much that could be done to protect the tree. Fencing it off was never an option for her, she stressed.

Moresi wanted people to interact with the tree. She wanted children to hug it. It was a charitable perspective, given all she had seen. She told the story of once finding the proposal PROM? carved into one of the beechs branches. When I first saw that I was like I swear to god I hope she punched him, she said.

When I asked her why more interventions hadnt been put in place, she paused. It really is just a matter of letting nature take its course, she said.

It was May then, and only one of the trees branches held leaves. Moresi admitted that had been a disappointment. However, she was quick to point out that a dying tree, or even a dead one, breeds life.

A dead tree, called a snag, hosts bacteria, fungi, insects, and animals. Woodpeckers peck it, raccoons nest in it, and mushrooms grow up and down its branches. On the dead limbs of The Great Beech, an entire ecosystem is churning.

Nearby, another beech, named Baby Beech, grows.

Baby Beech sprouted up from The Great Beechs extensive roots, and has been called its successor. The little tree is growing taller in a thicket behind The Great Beech, nearly undetectable.

Like their predecessor, the beeches that have sprouted around The Great Beech are not fenced off. Sitting beside them, I watched the birds and insects whirl around the beechs limbs, dead and alive. The branches that once shaded the area have fallen, and plants of all kinds are growing in the new flood of sunlight. The trees decay is a generous one. The Great Beech may have been loved to death. But those who visit it, myself included, learn that we can love the natural world in death as well.

As I sat, hikers ambled by on the trail, all of them stopping for a moment to look. What kind of tree is that? one woman asked me. A European Beech, I said, a tinge of kvell in my voice. I watched as the group craned their necks up, up, up. As they walked away, I heard one say to the others: Wow.

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A certified champion, Phillys Great Beech is dying, over 150 years after it was planted - WHYY