MapA 300-year-old valley oak has conquered younger adversaries in a political scuffle in Yountville, as the Yountville Town Council voted 3-2 Tuesday night to let the fragile old tree stand despite concerns about safety and legal liability.

The tree’s fate has been the subject of debate in Yountville for eight months. Some neighbors and town officials contend the tree’s fading health poses risks to nearby residences and passers-by on a walking trail. Others say the majestic oak, perhaps the oldest of its kind in the valley and home to bee hives and owls, should be preserved.

Tuesday’s vote was a “stay of execution,” according to tree advocate and town resident Alan Tenscher. While the tree will stand, the town will prune limbs, regularly monitor the tree’s health and create fences and signs to block pedestrians, including students at the adjacent Yountville Elementary School, from walking under the tree.

The tree sits on the western edge of Hopper Creek, which was named for Gold Rush-era pioneer Charles Hopper. Hopper arrived in the Napa Valley in the 1840s, 130 years or so after the tree began to grow.

Councilmembers John Dunbar, Marjorie Mohler and Lewis Chilton voted to preserve the tree, while Mayor Cynthia Saucerman and Councilman Bill Dutton preferred removing it. The majority decision adopted the recommendation of town staff and an ad hoc tree committee that included residents, councilmembers and arborist Bill Pramuk.

Pramuk said he will trim the tree to reduce the “weight and windsail” of limbs that might snap off in a storm or become too heavy. “We’ll be pruning to reduce the length of the outer limbs and tops, trying to not disfigure the tree. At this stage, there’s no plan to disrupt any bee hives or anything terribly significant; just the larger, outer branches that are four-to-six inches in diameter, possibly a couple of larger branches,” he said.

Pramuk allowed that the “tree could fail in a strange or unexpected way,” but said he felt confident that the policy the town adopted addresses property damage concerns.

Chilton, seen as the swing vote going into Tuesday’s meeting, said the safety of school children and others has been the top concern. “The deciding factor was, ‘Can we come up with a solution that saves the tree and answers safety concerns?’ The answer was ‘yes.’”

Chilton said the town must do more to convince people to keep off the path and out of harm’s way. “We need additional fencing right behind the elementary school to make it more difficult to go through that area,” he said.

Mayor Saucerman said she appreciated all the work that the ad hoc committee and staff put into the solution, but said she believes the tree should be removed. “This guy could do some serious damage if it fell,” she said.

Saucerman noted that some $5 million in claims have been filed against Sonoma County after a tree along Bennett Valley Road in Glen Ellen fell earlier this year and killed a  5-year-old boy. The family of the boy says the county did too little to monitor the health of nearby trees. “In my opinion, the town shouldn’t assume that risk,” Saucerman said.

She also said it will be hard to keep people from walking up the dry bed of Hopper Creek or otherwise approaching the tree. “Kids are going to go in no matter what you do, that’s what kids do.”

Tenscher said he hopes that through educational signs and the  fact that the town is saving such a special specimen the tree will be seen more as an asset than a liability. If Yountville is going to enjoy a reputation as a “green town” with the environmentally-friendly features of the new Bardessono Inn and French Laundry Chef Thomas Keller’s organic garden, he said it is important to “venerate and respect our native environment and our natural resources.”



View 300-year-old tree saved in a larger map