This story was updated on July 11 at 5:30 p.m. to include the new removal date and location of wooden sculpture.
There is more time to say “goodbye” to North Bethesda’s mighty white oak tree, the Linden Oak. Originally planned to be removed in June, the more than 300-year-old tree’s removal was postponed to due to a historic area work permit.
At a Montgomery County Historic Preservation Commission meeting on June 28, the commission approved the work permit, which is needed for properties that are listed on the Master Plan for Historic Preservation. Montgomery Parks plans to remove the tree on July 18 at 8:30 a.m., according to a new Montgomery Parks press release.
Dubbed the “Montgomery Champion” tree from 1976 to 2022–a title given to the largest known white oak tree in the county–in its prime, the mighty oak stood 95 feet tall with a crown spanning 150 feet.
The Linden Oak is said to have survived the American Revolution and is the oldest known white oak in Montgomery County, according to the Maryland Historical Trust. It is one of the county’s historic landmarks listed on the Master Plan for Historic Preservation. A plaque near the tree says the Linden Oak also survived the construction of the Metro red line in 1973 when then-County Councilmember Idamae Garrot successfully lobbied to redesign the red line around the tree.
Montgomery Parks is leading the charge in the removal of the tree, which has been dead since last year, according to Colter Burkes, a senior urban forester at the agency.
After several years of declining health, Montgomery Parks has moved to cut down the oak before it becomes a public hazard. In November 2020, a large limb of the roughly 95-foot oak broke off the tree, signaling the tree’s poor health.
Burkes said that the entire tree or a large branch could fall at any time, and he was concerned about the safety of Montgomery Parks maintenance staff who mow the grass below the tree canopy.
“I would like to get it down sooner than later,” he told MoCo360.
Pedestrians, cyclists and drivers are less of a concern as Burkes said the path and the road are at a distance from the dead oak and is unlikely to hit someone.
Montgomery Parks plan to leave about 20-feet of the tree’s trunk at the site, which will allow it to be a habitat for wildlife in the area.
Since news of the tree’s removal came out, some county residents have come by to visit the tree before its towering presence is gone.
Burkes said that there will be safety protocols in place to keep members of the public away from the work area and added that there is a good view from a nearby elevated sidewalk.
To stay safe while visiting, Burkes recommends not spending a long time underneath the canopy and advises visitors to view the tree at a distance from the sidewalk along Grosvenor Lane.
“Generally, I wouldn’t stay there too long. You never know when it can come down,” he said. “Most likely if you’re in and out of there quickly, you’re not there very long, chances of it falling when you’re there are low.”
Since the tree’s decline in health, Burkes said Montgomery Parks staff have taken different measures to care for the tree, including adding mulch around the trunk and compost tea–a liquid fertilizer that promotes soil health and root growth–putting up cabling to hold the tree together after decay was apparent, and adding lightning protection.
“We’ve definitely cared for it over many years. The tree is thought to be over 300 years old, so it’s like people. When you get to be really old you start to decline,” Burkes said. “Not as healthy as you used to be. With a really old tree, sometimes there is not much you can do to keep it going.”
A Washington D.C. arborist, Keith Pitchford, told MoCo360 in December 2020, that grading and infill from the Metrorail construction in the mid-1970s is likely to have weakened the tree.
“All of that soil is added on top of the root system of that tree, and it basically kills those roots that were under there. And the tree has to regenerate it in another part of the root system, and that takes a lot of energy,” he said.
The Linden Oak is located in Rock Creek Park in North Bethesda near the intersection of Beach Drive, Grosvenor Lane and Rockville Pike.
After Montgomery Parks cuts down the tree, the Linden Oak could still get another “leaf” on life. The agency plans to evaluate the cut-down wood to see if it will be viable to be sculptured into a work of art by a local chainsaw artist and placed in Ken-Gar Local Park. Burkes said, any other left over and viable wood will be sold at a public urban wood sale, advertised as wood from a historic tree.