BY SARAH BARBAN, Eastern Shore Post —
The fate of a centuries-old white oak tree in Onancock has been hanging in the balance as downtown grows and changes.
The 200- to 300-year-old tree stands behind the Roseland Theater, surrounded by Queen Street and a town parking lot, which are set to be updated with new traffic patterns, parking spaces, lighting, and landscaping.
Concerns about the tree arose when a meeting was held with surrounding businesses, property owners, and town representatives.
Mayor Fletcher Fosque offered background about the parking lot and the tree during the Monday, Aug. 26, town council meeting.
The town purchased the parking lot, along with the former First National Bank and the residential lot at 6 Queen St., in 2007. The bank building and the residential lot were later sold and the town only retained the parking lot, Fosque said.
In 2022, the town secured a grant for $14,000 to care for the tree. The grant was used for lightning protection, canopy cleaning and pruning, asphalt removal, ground cover under the canopy, and some branch cabling.
“The parking lot came up as one of the priorities to improve,” Fosque said. “It’s on our capital improvement plan for next year, so we gathered the stakeholders and, of course, the tree issue came up.
“This was an ad hoc committee. We discussed ideas with the stakeholders about what they’d like to see with this parking lot. It’s council’s decision what we do with this parking lot — no one else’s.”
Mark Belknap, an ISA-certified arborist with Eastern Shore Forestry and Wildlife, provided a risk assessment for the tree, which he presented at the Monday meeting.
When conducting the risk assessment, Belknap looked at the tree’s characteristics, possible targets such as people, vehicles, buildings, and power lines — which would be impacted if a branch or the tree itself fell — the possibility of a failure in the structure of the tree based on defects, and the consequences of a failure.
Those factors were combined to determine the tree risk assessment. The assesssment doesn’t take into account severe weather such as a hurricane.
Mitigation options to reduce risk are also part of the assessment, as well as tree care options that the town could look at if it chooses, Belknap said.
Some of the risk from the tree has already been mitigated — for example, the power company removed limbs that were a potential concern in regards to power lines. Any limbs that might fail in the next 12 months were also removed, Belknap said.
“It’s an amazing tree,” Belknap said. “It’s a great asset to the town.”
Belknap suggested putting a split rail fence around the tree 80 feet from the trunk to further mitigate the risk of limbs hitting people or property.
“Low risk is where you’re at now, especially if you put a fence around it,” Belknap said.
Councilmember Maphis Oswald asked if there was anything further that could be done to improve the health of the tree. Belknap suggested watering the oak during times of drought, monitoring the rot that is present on the tree, and doing annual crown cleaning and fertilizing.
Town Manager Matt Spuck spoke to the town’s attorney and insurance company to determine the town’s liability should a limb fall on a person or property.
“They said basically if we do what would be normal and customary care and we don’t have gross negligence, then we would be covered from an insurance point of view and from the legal point of view,” Spuck said.
Fosque suggested that a no trespassing sign be put up, as well as a sign about the tree.
Citizens also stepped up to advocate for keeping the tree during pubic comment.
“I’m here to speak for the tree,” said town resident Jenna Chapman. “I think that saving the tree and the shade and the green space that it provides is really important.”
Chapman also suggested there be an avenue to allow citizens to donate money to cover the cost of installing fencing.
“My suggestion would be to work out a plan to incorporate the tree into the parking lot design and then come back to us with a plan on how we would do that,” Fosque said to Spuck.
