Life of 600-year-old oak tree comes full circle 

The neatest thing is they replanted it’s offspring so a true part of that tree has been reborn.

As a certified arborist who specializes in tree protection plans, it would be interesting to perform a study by recording the gravestones and calculating impact the disturbances to the critical root zone and structural root plate over time.

Even though it's dead, take the wood and carve things out of it and give them to residents so they will always have a part of it with them

I live in Basking Ridge, and have my whole entire life! The tree was great to look at when it was up and I had lived with it all of my life when it was cut down it was sad but it will always live in everyone's hearts! Even the stump is a sight to see! It reminds everyone of history that was once there and still is! I drive past it everyday and have loved growing up in Basking Ridge.

My passion in life is to plant at least 100 trees every year until I die.

Looks like a beautiful town with caring people

Nice Ending, old tree had it's time, glad the man planted the acorns

Decades ago when my grandparents' church (also Presbyterian) built a new, larger campus, my grandfather, who took great appreciation in woodworking, was able to collect several boards from the old facility and carve Crosses, one of which he gave to me a few years before he passed.

We had a couple fires burn through my property in California over the last 6 years and we have a few very old white oak species called Quercus Lobata or Valley Oak that have survived. But with last year’s fire we almost lost the oldest (maybe 350-450 years old). A large dead branch had caught fire and was burning into the live wood, and the bark on one side was burning off. Luckily I caught it in time and put out the flames. It was a great sight to see green foliage reappearing this spring even though it was partially burned and we barely got any rain this winter. Very tough, and beautiful trees.

I grew up in Basking Ridge. A sad day and a loss to the community.

That oak was once a acorn..

A bench should be made out of the wood and placed there for people to sit

I love the spiritual connection people have to this tree. The way they mention they can 'feel' its energy through the stump.

what a great story, that tree had a fantastic life span - thanks for posting

I love trees. The bigger and older the better. I really like to see people who care about trees too! Thank you. I have a red oak that is 182 inches in circumference. This past August I came home to find my neighbor hacking away at it with a pole saw, trying to cut what he could reach over his property. It could have gotten oak wilt and died. I swear too many people have no respect for old trees.

What appears to be the end is not always the end... Love that!

We have a 60 year old Magnolia tree in my front yard that my great uncle planted. It moved with my family to where it sits now.

What a blessing the man growing the offspring !

Soo very glad they re-planted its offspring there

Glad they replanted the tree! It has already grown larger in size, and it will continue to for years to come. Let's be honest, we all got scared for a second they were gonna forget to replant it.

Really touching story. In the village I liv, we have some very old Oakes close to the church. My uncle died from difteria in 1918. His grave is under one of the big oakes. It's nice somehow to think that the tree was there than too.

What a touching story! 😭 They should have sliced pieces of the tree up and given them to everyone and anyone who wanted them in that town. I'm sure the community would have contributed to the cost for that part to be done...this tree could provide mulch or sawdust for many in the community as well..I hope it was used wisely as it was a very wise tree 🍁🌱🍁🌳🍁

I hope they made some really cool things from the wood. Like a gazebo or something.

I would love to live here.. Absolutely love the community spirit they have.

I grew up near Basking Ridge in Liberty Corner. I love that tree.

Our school has a 200 year old oak and it’s big

Reminds me a lot of "the giving tree" a great story about what nature and trees specifically can offer to us.

It was stupid to remove that last main piece of the trunk! That thing was big and gnarly and you could have had a professional Carver come in and make a hell of a monument out of that tree to last for centuries more to come.

when i saw that chainsaw cutting through the tree, made me sad.

First time I cried for a tree

I oughta visit the young tree

Magnifique créature

This is so cool the Oak lived so long even before the american continent was discovered! Now the new oak will live another 600 years from now!

The baby oak is so cute

Great story. Impressive tree planting vehicle too.

What a beautiful tree! Thanks for sharing.

This is a proper community.

I hope they made a memorial out of the trunk or something.

Pretty sure that tree is in some of those graves.

I have worked in the Forestry all my life in the uk . So thank u for this video... gives us all hope .

Beautifully produced segment.

Fantastic, oak trees are really golden fantastic

Who was the first squirrel to ever make its home on it?

That’s a beautiful story, love the baby Oak

We should plant thousands of these splendid trees.

I wish I had the space to grow a coast live oak. I hope I can move to place in the future that has one. It’s not the same as growing one, but to help nurture the legacy is important

Would've been nice to leave a big part of the trunk and have a professional wood carver come in and create something for more generations to see and cherish.

I love the idea of generations of the same old white oak always being part of that community throughout the decades. It gives this impression that there's something so sacred to it.

I’ve planted 4 white oaks this fall, I hope no one cuts it down and it lives for 600 years as well.

My parents bought a property and there was a Great Oak on it, they tried every way they could to keep it but there wasn't no way to make it work, it was diening too. When they took the tree down it was figures to be around 450-500 years old. It kept many families warm as 100% of the wood was cut and donated to families who needed it for the Winter, and not far from the stump....another Oak statretd growing figured it's from a limb that had Acorns on it drove down into the ground when it was cut, it's 34 years old now it's a great tree it's gonna be a short (comparatively) and wide tree, the base of the trunk is big already.

Just make a Statue out of this 600 years old oak tree. So everyone loves it. Its just for memorial.

3.53 Should have left the tree like that as a memorial.

Beautiful

Perfectly healthy massive oak tree in the woods near me and it, by the look of it is over 1000 years old

So much pure beauty and wisdom in this piece.

Should have cut the trunk in layers to make end or coffee tables out of

Wonderful story! Thanks for share. Congratulations from Brasil.

To everything, there is a season....

They should have made church pulpits, altars and pews with the oak for the church. It's their tree and they should plant more trees.

thumb up or thumb down,I'm not sure what to do

Even a tree full of souls dies eventually lol

amazing tree

The comments were all "such a beautiful story." Or suggestions for the wood. But why the frik was there concrete in the tree, and why hasn't anyone else asked this question yet?

I looked deep into that trees soul, and saw the parlay I need to make this NFL Sunday. Thank you tree.

It was starting to die but I would have bet it would have stood for alot longer...if a person coulda reduced the tip weight maybe yall coulda kept it...

This so sad i feel 😔😢

My parents have a 300+ year old oak on their property and I hope it outlives me because it would break my heart to see it die

If they would cut out spraying those chemicals in the skies this great organism would still be alive.

I hope they used the wood around the town for benches, sculptures ect to celebrate there towns history and the trees history

Why didn’t they fill it with concrete, support the branches more, and leave in position?

Part of life is the end. And most of the time, the end makes room for new beginnings!

Looks like it wood have stood another 600 years.........

terrible way to treat a dying ancient tree it would have taken 300 yrs to die and support millions of organisms

I would of loved to see how the tree was growing before we humans invaded its space 😢

Beautiful.

Why would you cut it down

Trees are so amazing. Like the spirit of life resides inside them. We have all the answers in front of our eyes. How fragile they can be at the beginning of their life and unbreakable at the end. Wind might shake them but they don't break like essence of life and spirituality and light grows in ourselves, seasons after seasons, thunder after thunder, we become stronger. The seeds will help spreading this light and spirituality and more importantly love around the glob Every beings on this planet have their purpose. Are we more important than trees? No we aren't. It is not because they can't speak that they are not. They give us oxygen. grow by using sun rays and their roots without destroying anything. What are we doing ? We take without giving back anything. And yes like every beings on this planet, they do have souls. And it is made from the same energy than your soul. (and you might not hear them but trees flowers ect do communicate. Scientists only start understanding that) We are far from being as spiritual than they are. I think tree is the last step of reincarnation on earth.

I have an oak in my backyard about that size

You didn’t sculpt the trunk of the tree. What a lost opportunity.

the sadness of the rotten metropolitan world surrounding it's stationary enslavement killed that tree

very cool.

Did the tree die? ......or did some do-gooders decide it was "dangerous" and just cut it down?

How they gonna remove the stump?

I never met the tree but watching this video makes me feel sad and connected with it in some way

Why do I have a tear... we need to live different lives. Things aren’t right these days

I did not understand why the tree was cut down

Who and how decided the tree is dead?

shouldn't of felled the trunk from 3:52. 600 year old tree couldn't give t 5 years see what it does?... i bet that would of re-gen

Couldn't they have carved a statue or built something out of the old oak?

Sad I have fallen

I hope they mill it into some table tops and lumber. Another way that the tree's history can live on. That's what they did with an iconic oak here in San Diego that had to be cut down made it into tables and furniture guitar very beautiful wood.

Dang I'm not even there and after seeing this video, I can feel the sorrow and happiness just by watching that tree disappearing.

400 years over. 5000 species of insects, 170 species of birds, 58 species of lizards, snakes, amphibians, and 105 outside of fuel, the LIVE OAK is not in ant imment danger. California Oak species ECOSYSTEM.

Imagine the amount CO2 this magnificent giant has sequestered during its lifetime... Now it's all released back into the atmosphere. If only trees could live forever

They said they had to cut the tree down because it had died and it was causing a health problem to the community yet they allow people to get parts of that dead tree and take it with them. I think they just didn't want the tree anymore

It actually died prematurely, probably from the embalming fluids used to preserve the dead.

I wish my life was so spoiled that cutting down a dead tree makes me cry

Awesome

“The best time to plant a tree is 600 years ago.”

Looked pretty sturdy not rotted out