As San Mateo County celebrates its 150th anniversary, a heritage oak, which had served as a reminder of life well before the county’s creation, fell in Menlo Park on Saturday, July 22.
The tree, located near the back of the front yard at 550 Hobart St., may have been over 300 years old, making it one of the oldest, if not the oldest, oak in Menlo Park, according to city arborist Juan Alvarez. Bob Meconi, who grew up in the house, said he spoke to an arborist who estimated that it was the second-largest oak in the Bay Area, at about 9 feet in diameter and 45-50 feet tall.
Mr. Meconi said that he was building a shelf on the front lawn when he heard something that sounded like acorns falling, which seemed odd because oak trees don’t produce acorns during the summer.
“I walked over to the tree, and the ground around it looked different,” Mr. Meconi said. “It was almost hallucinatory; it just didn’t look right.”
He noticed a crack in the concrete behind the tree, and decided to call 911.
When firefighters arrived, they considered evacuating the house next door, concerned that the tree would either fall on that house or on the wing of the Meconi home.
Instead, the oak toppled forward into the front yard at around 2:30 p.m., causing only slight damage to a car parked in the driveway and few shingles on the roof of one wing of the house. Mr. Meconi said that the ground started to rise up, he heard a crack, and within three seconds the tree had fallen.
Member of family
He said that the tree was like a member of the family, providing a place to swing during his childhood and a shady refuge when he was an adult. His family has lived there for 47 years.“It was like a father, a grandfather, or a big brother; silent, witnessing our lives,” he said.
It also provided a home for wildlife, including squirrels, robins, and red-tailed hawks, he said, serving as a faint reminder of the natural world that existed long before Menlo Park was founded.
Dianne Dryer, the environmental program coordinator for Menlo Park, said that Mr. Alvarez noticed fungus in the roots when he came by the house to examine it after it had fallen, the probable cause of the tree’s collapse.
She said that root fungus is responsible for the deaths of most old trees, hollowing them out and leaving them unable to stand. She added that it usually results from a tree getting too much water, and urged owners of oaks not to water them.
“You can’t tell that the process [of root fungus] is going on, so it’s very dangerous,” she said, adding that she was grateful no one was hurt when the Meconis’ tree fell.
But she was quick to say that she thought the Meconis had maintained the tree well, and that age was certainly a factor. Bob Meconi’s parents, Harold and Maria Teresa, received an award from the city’s Environmental Quality Commission in 1998 for taking good care of the tree.
A comprehensive study of the tree’s life will be undertaken when an arborist and environmentalists visit the house next week, Mr. Meconi said.
The family is considering either replacing the oak with a statue after it is cleared away, or simply leaving the y-shaped stump as a reminder.
“We need to give ourselves some space to have some quiet time to think about it,” Mr. Meconi said of his family. “We’re still realizing more about our relationship to it, and the role it played in our lives.”
