CONTRIBUTED CONTENT: Living time capsule

Last Thursday, The Press wrote an enticing article about a time capsule that started out as a rumor. After reading century-old newspaper clippings that described a dedication ceremony in 1926, they revealed it was behind a cornerstone of the courthouse. Folks from the city's historic preservation commission assisted in this research and indeed its discovery. How absolutely fascinating! What will be found inside? What insights to our city's past will be revealed? What could it teach us about our future direction?

In a correlated thought, I looked up the online version of “Historical, Unusual and Big Trees of Coeur d’Alene.” Perhaps a record of when one of those were planted and by whom may be in there! This thought led me to the epiphany that there are many trees in City Park and around downtown that are indeed living time capsules.

Dendrochronology is the study of tree ring data and analysis. From studying the rings of a tree we can learn many things about the past, such as drought years, high precipitation years, environmental impacts and human activity. Most people will think that this can only be done on a tree after it's cut down, but it can be done to living trees as well. An increment borer can extract a pencil-sized cylindrical sample revealing annual ring growth from its core to the bark and Cd'A has plenty of trees that are as old and older than the courthouse time capsule.

At Grace Tree Service, we have removed several old and declining Ponderosa pine trees from the Hayden Lake Country Club. From those giants, we cut 4- to 6-inch tree cookies and counted the rings back to interesting and distant dates like when the Cataldo Mission was built, Mullan Trail was established, Fort Sherman days and the 1910 fire. When my children were little, I marked in one of those tree samples the day their great grandparents were born and the day they passed. To see an entire lifetime of an 80-year-old individual encapsulated in the rings of a tree can really put life into perspective.

I really hope to be a part of the city's time capsule revealing July 3. I also desire that this generates individual interest in our living tree time capsules that we drive past every day, a renewed attention to our historical, unusual and large trees as well as reflection of our human time and impact to our greater Coeur d’ Alene community.

As always, for further tree related questions, quotes or consultations, give us a call today, 208-762-5800!

For more information on Grace Tree Service, check out our website at gracetreeservice.com.