Charles Baber Cemetery in Pottsville recently cut down "the John Pott tree," a 186-year old, 75-foot-tall white oak tree that towered over the grave of the city's founder but was dying.
Now, another of the cemetery's signature trees is slated for the ax, members of the board of directors for the Charles Baber Preservation Trust Inc., including J. Robert Zane, Schuylkill Haven, announced Friday at the cemetery's annual Arbor Day celebration.
"This one, I'll miss," Zane said as he admired its clusters of reddish leaves.
"It's a European copper beech tree," said Frank P. Snyder, service forester for the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Cressona.
The tree towers more than 60 feet over a collection of graves for the Donaldson family, including the final resting place of Revolutionary War soldier William Donaldson, Zane said.
"It's diseased," Zane said.
"It's a fungus," Snyder said.
"If we leave it, it might eventually fall and crack the stones," Zane said.
"They're going to cut that down? That's a pretty tree," said Laura Dallago, a Pottsville Area sophomore who attended the Arbor Day event at the cemetery Friday.
"As you can see, it's a tree in trouble," said Diana Beausang, Pottsville Area High School biology teacher, who also attended the event. She pointed out how the bark was falling from the trunk.
Snyder and Zane weren't sure of the tree's age but believed it was more than a century old.
Lumber Jack and Jill Tree Service, Auburn, the firm which took down the Pott tree in March, will cut down the tree in the second week of May, Zane said.
"It will cost close to $2,000 and we'll try to minimize the cost by selling some of the wood," Zane said.
Friday was National Arbor Day, according to the website for the Arbor Day Foundation at arborday.org.
A crowd of 25 gathered for the Arbor Day celebration at the cemetery, including Mayor John D.W. Reiley; the Rev. James A. Rinehart, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, Pottsville; Joe Orlowsky, chairman of the Pottsville Shade Tree Commission; and other students, including Caitlin Croley, a Pottsville Area sophomore, and three seniors from Nativity BVM High School, Dominic Chiplonia, Alexa Kowker and Sarah McDonald.
While older trees are being cut down at the cemetery, new ones were also recently planted, Orlowsky said, including six white pines, one pin oak, one dogwood, one linden and one red maple.
"They were paid for by sponsors," Orlowsky said.
There were several Arbor Day events in Pottsville throughout Schuylkill County on Friday.
In Tremont Township, local organizations worked together to plant trees on former coal land, the Michael Coal site just west of Tremont. The American Chestnut Foundation planted an acre of its potentially blight-resistant American chestnuts there Friday, Michael French, Foundation spokesman, said this week.
Volunteers from Northern Swatara Creek Watershed Association, Schuylkill Headwaters Association and employees of the Schuylkill County Municipal Authority, the current landowner, assisted Friday, according to Pat Caulfield, the Schuykill County Municipal Authority executive director.