UWSP says goodbye to champion oak
1/24/2017

The northern pin oak was standing when UW-Stevens
Point was founded in 1894.

Stevens Point Journal

​By Keith Uhlig

The northern pin oak that dominated the landscape of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point as a world champion stands no more.

No one is sure when the oak first sprouted from an acorn, but the tree was certainly older than 123 years, because it was growing strong when the university was founded in 1894. It died from oak wilt, a fungal disease that set into the tree's vascular system after it lost a limb in a storm on June 1. By July, its leaves were curling and losing their color and experts such as Rich Hauer, a professor of urban forestry at the college, knew it could not be saved. UW-Stevens Point maintenance crews cut the tree down on Jan. 9.

"I was so saddened," Hauer said. He first got to know the tree when he was a student at UW-Stevens Point in the late 1980s and early 1990s. After coming to Point to teach in 2003, Hauer used the oak in his taxonomy courses; the tree's location on campus made it easy for students to learn first-hand about Quercus ellipsoidalis.

MORE: STORY and PHOTO SLIDESHOW


Article Tags

CNR; Alumni; Sustainable