By Cathy Moritz
The Lincoln Garden Club and the Friends of the Lincoln Library are jointly sponsoring efforts to preserve the Library’s twisted Catalpa tree. The Garden Club and FOLL retained certified arborist Jonathan Bransfield of Bransfield Tree Co. to perform a significant preservation project on the tree in December 2020. We send our thanks to Jonathan for this and prior work he has done on our iconic tree.
Here is Jonathan’s description of the project:
“The Twisted Catalpa tree at the Lincoln Library was likely installed somewhere in the 1910s and its age is really starting to show, especially the condition of that curiously twisted stem… it’s as hollow as a soda straw and highly vulnerable to breaking apart in a storm. An analogy I like to use to help think about the structural issues of trees is that of an antique home: imagine renovating an old house with new insulation, plumbing, windows etc., it also has an old fieldstone foundation that is caving in and needs to be rebuilt. Similarly, a very old tree can have all its roots, soil, foliage, and cambium tuned up and working just great, but where a house can be jacked up to have a new foundation built under it, trees have no such therapy to rebuild a decayed core. All the old-school methods of cavity filling with concrete or other materials have been thoroughly debunked.
An aerial view of the cabling work that was done in December.
“Maybe someday we will have the technology to reconstruct decayed heartwood, but until that time there are two arrows in our quiver to preserve decaying trees years into the future, and both were applied to our beloved catalpa. First was cabling. Cables work really well to add structural integrity to a spreading tree canopy, and in this case we used a noninvasive type that doesn’t require drilling into the wood. By cabling opposing limbs to each other with a hub and spoke formation, the forces of wind or ice pulling on a limb are distributed throughout the whole tree. For the second step we did some judicious pruning out on the tips of limbs. By shortening long and reaching limbs we reduce the potential weather forces that can bear down on that limb. It’s a lot harder to hold a weight with your arm fully outstretched than with it tucked in even a few inches. Our special lift equipment makes it possible to do this tip pruning surgically with full control of the cut.
“There are few guarantees with big, old decaying trees in this age of increasing storm intensity and damage. I have been enjoying the sight of this highly unique plant for 30 years, and I hope we will get at least another 30 together. How did this tree get its shape? My vote is with human manipulation, and I will be working on growing reproductions of it from its very own progeny. Hopefully we will have grown something equally as wonderful when this specimen finally passes on.”
Moritz is the coordinator for the Lincoln Catalpa Committee.
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Jonathan’s opinion that the tree got its twist from “human manipulation” is intriguing. Did he describe how that might have been done? I’m surprised we don’t see lots of other trees twisted in this manner, if indeed it once was fashionable.
Bransfield’s description is almost poetic! Thanks for including it here.
Thank you Cathy!