Praising trailblazers and their trophy trees!

Retained by the City of Irvine at the Turtle Rock Nature Center, CA

You are daring, all who retained these dying trees! And you are visionaries. Let’s tell the world why! The Cavity Conservation Initiative is proud to showcase your decisions because when nay sayers pushed back, saying, “But its ugly! It’s dangerous! It’s dead for heaven sake! Why would you want to keep it?” you remained resolute, and smiled. You had a safe management plan in mind.

You knew your dying tree was in a metamorphosis to a new purpose, a ‘second life,’ if you will.  It carries a legacy, though now its usefulness remains virtually out of view. You were able to see past its appearance, to understand how its gnarled, leafless limbs, its gradual dismantling and disheveled appearance is a critical step in nature’s master plan.

When it takes decades or longer to produce a large tree and replace this chapter of its destiny, why would we not want to save it? We hail all of you who have already answered that question! And have a trophy tree to prove it!