The big, old tree is down but it may yet have a beautiful after-life.
A massive and nearly 100-year-old white oak tree at Chilliwack middle school was damaged in early February’s severe ice storm.
For safety reasons, the school district removed the tree, the last large chunk of which was left on site by the tree removal crew. That’s because the tree removal crew knew that local furniture maker Robert Prinse might want the massive piece, and want it he did.
Prinse paid more than $800 to hire a crane to move the chunk that weighed in at more than 16,000 pounds, according to the operator’s scale.
Prinse was on hand Wednesday helping the crane operator load the chunk of wood onto the flatbed truck to be shipped to his wood collection he stores in a barn on Banford Road.
Counting the rings on site, he estimated the tree to be between 90 and 95 years old.
Prinse runs Mount Cheam Woodworking where he makes handcrafted furniture out of solid hardwoods such as maple, black walnut and oak, including custom pieces.
The 15-foot long piece left behind was five-and-a-half feet in diameter at the bottom, about four feet in the middle and five-and-a-half feet again at the top.
Prinse said he hopes to be able to cut eight, four-inch slabs out of the tree to create unique dining room or boardroom table tops.