The 230 Year Challenge – Who’s In?

• In the forests, every year and season brings some new adventure.
• A low point of 2014 was that the largest oak in our Mt. Richmond Forest died.  We’re not sure of the cause – perhaps just old age?
• The discovery of this winter was that once the old, dead monster tree was cut and came thundering to the forest floor, we counted the rings and discovered that the tree held 230 years of life.
• This means that the acorn sprouted in roughly 1786, and was a 20 foot sapling at the time when Lewis and Clark came over the hill.
• After much effort, the tree has been felled, bucked, yarded, loaded on the tree taxi and transported up to the hilltop mill – where we are thinking through how to mill the 44″ in diameter butt log into lumber.

The Challenge  – If the forest can spend 230 years growing such a magnificent tree, shouldn’t some one of us be able to use its wood to make an equally magnificent piece of furniture that will still be going strong in another 230 years (the year 2,246!)?  That is the challenge that the Hyla Woods team is issuing.  The sawdust covered glove has been thrown down; who will pick it up?  Who will give this tree a second life?