This Old Tree

Doug Still

Old trees are awe inspiring links to the past that fire our historical imagination. Ever wonder what their stories are? Seasoned arborist and amateur historian Doug Still interviews local experts, historians, and regular folks to celebrate the myths and uncover the real tales. If you're a tree lover, join in to look "beyond the plaque" at heritage trees and the human stories behind them. Biweekly.

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Ep 2 - The Edison Banyan

This Old Tree

10/01/22 • 46 min

Why did Thomas Edison plant a banyan tree sapling at his winter residence in 1926? You guessed it, there was an experiment involved. Native to India, it is now a massive, beloved tree at the Edison & Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers, Florida. While this isn’t an “escape from the lab” story, it is sort of a “took over the lab” story! Debbie Hughes, the Horticultural Director, explains what happened. Also, we dig into the mythology of fig trees - specifically “strangler” figs - and their critical ecological and cultural importance with rainforest ecologist and author Mike Shanahan.
Guests
Debbie Hughes
Horticultural Director, Edison & Ford Winter Estates
https://www.edisonfordwinterestates.org/
Mike Shanahan
Author, Gods, Wasps, and Stranglers: The Secret History and Redemptive Future of Fig Trees
https://underthebanyan.blog/about/
Tree Story Short
Sashil Sachdeva
Vadodara, India
Podcast Consultant
Martha Douglas-Osmundson

Music
Diccon Lee, www.deeleetree.com
Artwork
Dahn Hiuni, www.dahnhiuni.com/home
Website
thisoldtree.show
Follow on
Facebook or Instagram
We want to hear about the favorite tree in your life! To submit a 1-3 minute audio story for consideration for the "Tree Story Short” segment on This Old Tree, record the story on your phone’s voice memo app and email to:
doug@thisoldtree.net
This episode was written in part at the What Cheer Writers Club, Providence, RI
https://whatcheerclub.spaces.nexudus.com/about

Ep 1 - The Betsey Williams Sycamore

This Old Tree

09/15/22 • 41 min

The Betsey Williams Sycamore is the most famous tree in Rhode Island. Its huge girth and spreading branches have been photographed, climbed on, and loved by generations of visitors to historic Roger Williams Park in Providence. But its history touches on the legacy of Roger Williams, Rhode Island’s founder; introduces overlooked characters, some noble and some "shady," including a forgotten tree; and features a Williams family crisis (and divorce trial) that threatened the tree and future park.
Guests
Renee Gamba
Director of the Museum of Natural History
Parks Dept., City of Providence
http://providenceri.gov/museum/
http://https://www.providenceri.gov/parks-recreation/
Ruth Macaulay
History Dept., Lincoln School
http://lincolnschool.org
Special thanks to
Andrew Smith, The Rhode Island Supreme Court Judicial Record Center, http://https://www.courts.ri.gov/JudicialRecordsCenter/Pages/default.aspx
Rebecca Valentine, The Rhode Island Historical Society, http://rihs.org
Readers in order of appearance
Ed Nardell, Martha Douglas-Osmundson, Andy Sabo, Margaret Sabo, Laura Maxwell, Robb Barnard
Podcast Consultant
Martha Douglas-Osmundson

Trailer

This Old Tree

09/07/22 • 1 min

Join host Doug Still - each show features heritage trees and the human stories behind them.
Old trees are awe inspiring links to the past that fire our historical imagination. Each week, he’ll interview experts, historians, and regular folks to celebrate the myths and uncover the real tales. There’s also a segment called “Tree Story Shorts,” where listeners get a chance to submit and chat about the most meaningful tree in their lives.

Ep 3 - Chronicling a Tree: Thoreau's Concord Elm

This Old Tree

10/14/22 • 63 min

Concord, Massachusetts, 1856. Four men cut down a huge, seemingly healthy American elm tree using block and tackle, and ropes drawn by a horse. The graceful tree towered above a house whose owners heard creaking during a storm - they felt unsafe and had it removed. The event would have been long forgotten, except one of America’s greatest writers and earliest environmentalists also lived in Concord - Henry David Thoreau.

Supremely ticked-off, the removal of the stately elm inspired a flurry of journal writing by Thoreau that defined elms as symbols of virtue that looked to Concord’s past and the country’s future. Guest Thomas Campanella, Professor at Cornell University and author of Republic of Shade: New England and the American Elm, shares his work. It turns out, elm trees helped define our young nation’s sense of itself.

Guest
Thomas J. Campanella
Professor of City and Regional Planning
Cornell University
Republic of Shade: New England and the American Elm, Yale University Press, 2003.
Henry David Thoreau and the Yankee Elm, Arnoldia, 2001.
Other Sources:
Thoreau and the Language of Trees, Richard Higgins, Univ of California Press, 2017.
Podcast Consultant
Martha Douglas-Osmundson

Ep 4 - The First 9/11 Survivor Trees

This Old Tree

10/27/22 • 55 min

The Survivor Tree is a well known tree planted at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City that was rescued from the rubble at the World Trade Center site after the terrorist attacks. It has become a stirring symbol of resilience and survival visited by millions of people.
But few people remember there were six other trees rescued from the site and transplanted in early October of 2001. Host Doug Still was part of the City Parks Department team that found them along with his former boss Bram Gunther. Doug and Bram recount the day they visited Ground Zero, describe how these remarkable trees were saved, and discover what's become of them.

Guest
Bram Gunther
Native New Yorker; former Chief of Forestry, Horticulture, and Natural Resources for New York City Parks; co-founding partner of Dirt Collective, a start-up focused on re-wilding.
linkedin.com/in/bram-gunther-b8346522b
Podcast Consultant
Martha Douglas-Osmundson

Ep 5 - The Mies van der Rohe Honeylocust of the Alfred Caldwell Grove

This Old Tree

11/11/22 • 56 min

A big, old, thorny honeylocust tree on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago has a place within the history of modernist architecture and landscape design. How so? Professor and landscape architect Ron Henderson talks about the tree's relationship to Mies van der Rohe and his colleague Alfred Caldwell, and how the honeylocust became the feathery urban forest powerhouse it is today.

Guests
Ron Henderson
Professor and Director of Landscape Architecture, Illinois Institute of Technology
Founding Principal, LIRIO Landscape Architecture
lirio.work
https://arch.iit.edu/study/mla/
Richard Polansky
Owner, Hafs Road Orchard
Genoa City, Wisconsin
hafsroadorchard.com
Tree Story Short
Tom Brennan
Podcast Consultant
Martha Douglas-Osmundson

1 Listener

Ep 6 - Luna Endures: A Redwood's Survival Tale

This Old Tree

11/26/22 • 60 min

Luna is a 200 ft tall redwood tree that towers on a ridge deep within a privately owned forest in northern California. You may remember Julia Butterfly Hill's remarkable 2-year "tree sit" in the 1990's that helped save the tree and shed light on the indiscriminate clearcutting of redwood forests. But after an agreement was reached to save the redwood and the national news media left, another crisis arose that threatened Luna's existence, introduced new heroes, and ushered in a new era of collaboration.
Guests
Stuart Moskowitz
Board Member and lead "Luna Covenant" monitor, Sanctuary Forest
sanctuaryforest.org
Dennis Yniguez
Registered Consulting Arborist (ASCA), and a Board Certified Master Arborist (ISA). He received B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and his J.D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.
treedecisions.com
Tree Story Short
Carol Kingsbury
Books About Luna and Redwood Trees
Cook, Diane, and Len Jenshel. Wise Trees. Abrams Books. New York. 2017.

Davis, Erik. The Visionary State: A Journey Through California’s Spiritual Landscape. Chronicle Books. San Francisco. 2007.
Harris, David. The Last Stand: The War Between Wall Street and Main Street Over California’s Ancient Redwoods. Sierra Club Books. San Francisco. 1996.
Hill, Julia Butterfly. One Makes The Difference. Harper Collins. San Francisco. 2002
Hill, Julia Butterfly. The Legacy of Luna. Harper Collins. San Francisco. 2000
Hill, Niklas. Julia räddar skogen. Trinambai. Stockholm. 2017.
Kostecki-Shaw, Jenny Sue. Luna and Me. Holt. New York. 2015.
Lyon, George Ella. Voices of Justice: Poems about People Working for a Better World. Holt. New York. 2020.
Podcast Consultant
Robb Barnard
Special thanks to
Scott Parsons, for suggesting this episode and introducing me to Stuart

Ep 7 - Tree Story Shorts

This Old Tree

12/08/22 • 31 min

This a special episode of This Old Tree, the show that features heritage trees and the human stories behind them. This time, listeners tell their own tree stories! From Vermont to California to Hawaii, listen to what people have to say about the trees that inspire them.
Guests
Tom Morra
Arborist and Owner, TF Morra Tree Care
tfmorra.com
Katie Breukers
Arborist and Host of Tangled Trees podcast
Student at University of New Brunswick
anchor.fm/tangledtrees
Jean Zimmerman
Author of numerous books of fiction and nonfiction, articles, and a blog
Certified arborist, currently consults with New York City on tree preservation
jeanzimmerman.com
Andy Hillman
Retired Urban Forester
City of Ithaca, NY and Davey Resource Group
Thomas Spadea
Park Ranger and Host of My Favorite Trees podcast
mftpodcast.com
Bear Levangie
Arborist and Co-Founder of Women's Tree Climbing Workshop
womenstreeclimbingworkshop.com
Walt Warriner
Consulting Arborist
wwca.zenfolio.com
warrinerassociates.com
Mike Maino
Radio Show Host - WCRI, Barbershop Singer, Entertainer
https://classical959.com/about/mike-maino

Ep 8 - Harlem's Tree of Hope

This Old Tree

01/13/23 • 45 min

Picture yourself in Harlem in New York City, and it’s the 1920’s. There’s a cultural awakening going on - there’s jazz and dance, theater and literature, big celebrities and lots of new talent looking for a break. And of course - because this is a show about trees - there's a tree that becomes a symbol of the Harlem Renaissance. It’s the Tree of Hope, and it was a good luck charm to black performers looking to make the big time. Garden historian and storyteller Abra Lee tells the story of this particular tree’s rise to fame, its demise, and its enduring legacy.
Guest
Abra Lee
Garden Historian, Horticulturist, Arborist
Author of the forthcoming book, Conquer the Soil: Black America and the Untold Story of Our Country's Gardeners, Farmers, and Growers (2025)
conquerthesoil.com
Consulting Editor
David Still, II

Ep 9 - The Charter Oak

This Old Tree

01/30/23 • 59 min

King James II of England threatened to revoke the precious Charter of Connecticut in 1687, and sent one of his men to retrieve it. That meant an end to the colony's limited democracy and independence. But before it was exchanged during a key meeting, a hero slipped out of the room with it under his arm and hid it within the cavity of an old oak tree. That tree - the Charter Oak - is now a state icon. Get the full story here!
Guest Co-Host and Researcher
Jean Zimmerman
Arborist and author
jeanzimmerman.com
"In the Hidden History of Connecticut's Charter Oak" (blog)
Guests
Robert Storm
Honorary Governor General of the Society of Colonial Wars, Connecticut
Society of Colonial Wars in Connecticut
Jack Hale
Chair, Hartford Tree Advisory Commission
Christopher Martin
Connecticut State Forester
CT State Forestry - Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection
Allan Fenner
Consulting Arborist
Robb Barnard (Voice of Mark Twain)
Head of Performing Arts
Lincoln School, Providence, RI
lincolnschool.org
Consulting Editor
David Still, II

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FAQ

How many episodes does This Old Tree have?

This Old Tree currently has 14 episodes available.

What topics does This Old Tree cover?

The podcast is about Science and Nature.

What is the most popular episode on This Old Tree?

The episode title 'Ep 2 - The Edison Banyan' is the most popular with 0 listens and 1 ratings.

What is the average episode length on This Old Tree?

The average episode length on This Old Tree is 48 minutes.

How often are episodes of This Old Tree released?

Episodes of This Old Tree are typically released every 14 days, 1 hour.

When was the first episode of This Old Tree?

The first episode of This Old Tree was released on Sep 7, 2022.

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