Tree Masters Save Lincoln’s Eucalyptuses
May 8, 2015
Lincoln High School was recently experiencing a problem with its beautiful Eucalyptus trees, which have always stood as ornaments on the front lawn of the school. Indeed, these trees had a problem with fungus. Lincoln’s administration had debated about whether it would be safe to keep and heal the trees, or if they needed to be cut down.
Luckily, the tree experts who were called in determined that it would be possible to save the trees and keep them standing as a big part of the Lincoln community. The fungus disease that the trees have is very dangerous, and “ultimately they can kill the tree,” claimed Nick Nakao, a SJUSD groundskeeper. Mr. Nakao was in charge of deciding what to do with the eucalyptus trees, so Lion Tales asked him some questions about the whole process with the trees.
Q: “What kind of disease does the eucalyptus tree have? Is it common among trees in general or is it only a problem for eucalyptus trees?”
A: “It’s more of a precaution than anything. It was some evidence of a fungus on the tree.”
Q: “Is it dangerous, and could the tree have ultimately fallen?
A: “Oh yes, the location of the tree makes it our concern and so it was more a proactive approach.”
Q: “Do you have any idea about how old the trees are?”
A: “There is guesses that they are about 100 years old. Maybe the Principal Matt might be more familiar; we are not exactly sure.”
Q: “Do you know how long the lifespan of these trees is?”
A: “I know they can live beyond 100 years old. I’m not sure exactly how long they can live, but 100 years old I wouldn’t say is normal, but it’s a possibility, I guess.”
Q: “What was the reason to save the trees from being cut?”
A: “Well, I think that given their age and that they are part of the community, that’s what we would call a heritage tree. Anytime you consider removing one of them, there are other things to consider and you want to make sure you make an informed decision. So we always want to air on the side of caution and would like to keep the trees up as much as possible, but saying that, we gotta be sure that the trees are healthy enough to stay up.”
Q: “What are the steps you need to take to save trees from diseases like this?”
A: “A lot of times the tree can compartmentalize the fungus, essentially isolating it from spreading to other parts of the tree, which is what we were looking into. And so we hired a very, very new technology, in fact it’s one of only two machines in the western United States.”