https://gardenandgun.com/feature/the-enduring-magic-of-the-angel-oak/
"As a student at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, Samantha Siegel
drove almost every day to Johns Island to sit beneath the Angel Oak—a giant,
ancient live oak whose impossibly arching branches are a testament to many
hundreds of years of care and growth. “It was my sanctuary,” she remembers. “I
could touch the tree and feel the negative energy drain from my body.” Then in
2008, she saw a small paragraph in Charleston’s
Post and Courier: A developer
had purchased the land surrounding the tree, and the City Council had approved
plans for a complex called the Angel Oak Village. “The notice was buried in the
back of the newspaper, and I just couldn’t believe it. I thought, ‘Why doesn’t
everyone know about this?’”
Outraged, she told anyone who would listen: The development would clear
thirty-five acres of maritime forest around the tree and construct more than
six hundred townhomes and apartments, plus 40,000 square feet of retail space.
Siegel gathered other community members and groups who feared for the tree’s
health amid such development, founded a nonprofit called Save the Angel Oak,
and waded into a years-long battle. “We showed up at every opportunity there
was for public input. We hired our own experts and hydrologists and arborists
to counter the developers,” she says. “Losing was not an option. We were
prepared to fight until the tree was safe.” The nonprofit teamed up with the
Coastal Conservation League and the South Carolina Environmental Law Project
and took the developer to court over a wetland permit. The developer eventually
went bankrupt in the process, the bank foreclosed on the property, and the
Lowcountry Land Trust—where Siegel now works—raised millions of dollars in
record time to buy the surrounding thirty-five acres in 2014. “Knowing that we
had protected the Angel Oak forever…it was the best day of my life,” she says.
Today, the tree and its small gift shop remain open to the public and receive
some 400,000 visitors a year. And Siegel and the Lowcountry Land Trust,
assisted by the acclaimed landscape architecture firm Nelson Byrd Woltz, are in
the process of designing the Angel Oak Preserve, a forty-four-acre park with
paths, boardwalks, and a visitor’s center. The renovation—set to be completed
over the course of 2025—is intended to spread people out on the site, keep the
surrounding ecosystem healthy, and educate visitors on the tree’s long
history."
Via
Fix the News:
https://fixthenews.com/275-resurrection-notre-dame/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
