Efforts Underway To Preserve Old Village Landmark

CHATHAM – The giant copper beech along Water Street is one of the town’s most iconic trees. Its thick branches spread out over an expansive lawn, providing shade and a playground for generations of children. Although its age is uncertain, it has dominated the corner for at least 110 years, possibly as long as 160 years.

“There is no finer tree in Chatham,” says its entry on the Chatham Friends of Trees walking tour brochure. “In winter the elephant-hide-like bark is stunning; in summer the copper foliage is unrivaled.” It is, according to the brochure, “the queen of the walking tour.”

But like all beech trees, it is under threat from an invasive pest that has damaged or killed many on the Cape. Beech leaf disease began appearing on the Cape about three years ago, caused by a tiny parasite that disrupts normal leaf development. Leaves become stunted, curled or banded, interfering with photosynthesis and eventually thinning the canopy and weakening the tree. The nematode that causes the disease was first discovered in Ohio in 2012 and has since spread all along the eastern seaboard.

 A treatment exists for the disease, but it is expensive and must be applied every two years. Although the tree currently shows no signs of the disease, the Phelps family, which owns the property at 135 Main St. in the Old Village section of town, began the treatments in late spring. 

 “We want to keep it healthy,” said Nancy Phelps. “It’s a beautiful tree and we all love it.”

 “They’ve been lucky,” said arborist Craig Schneeberger of Bartlett Tree Experts. He was initially nervous about the tree’s condition, but said that its isolated location has helped it avoid beech leaf disease (BLD). 

“We’re lucky in Chatham because we don’t really have natural beech groves, where they do in Brewster and the north side of Harwich,” he said. Groves of beeches suffer more because the disease is easily transmissible in close quarters, while individual trees are less likely to become infected.

That’s not to say that Chatham doesn’t have its share of beech trees that are in danger from BLD. Bartlett’s is treating three large European beeches on the town-owned Marconi property along Route 28, as well as a tree in Kate Gould Park and is working with the Friends of Sylvan Gardens to treat a stand of beeches in that conservation area off Old Main Street. 

But the treatment is expensive — as much as $3,500 for a single treatment — and the resources aren’t available to treat another grove at the Sylvan Gardens property that is “riddled” with the nematodes, said Schneeberger. 

 “The Water Street one just got lucky,” he said.

 BLD is treated with a fungicide called Arbotect, said Schneeberger. Individual trees can be injected while groves can be sprayed. The success rate is high with isolated trees, he said, but more problematic when dealing with groves. Treatment is most effective in the spring; the injection must be done every other year, while spraying can be done throughout the summer, when the nematodes are most active. 

 Spraying is less expensive than injection, but might not be as effective, especially on large trees like those at the Marconi property, said Schneeberger.

 “These can’t be replaced,” he noted.

 He’s been beating the drum to raise awareness of BLD and other diseases threatening the “historic fabric of trees” that contribute to the Cape’s landscape.

 “We as a town have to decide whether or not to preserve large specimen trees like beech trees or the American elms,” he said. 

 The Phelps house was built in the mid-1800s and is known as the Heman Eldredge House after the sea captain who inherited the property from his wife’s parents. Heman and Mary Eldredge were the parents of Marcellus, builder of the Eldredge Public Library, and his brother Fisher. Nancy Phelps is the sixth generation of her family to live in the house. Some sources date the copper beech from 1860, but Phelps said it's not certain exactly when it was planted. Her mother was born in 1912, and “the tree was always here, to her recollection,” Phelps said.

 Generations of children played in the tree, she said. “We each had our special branch, and you couldn’t climb on them unless you had permission,” she recalled. “You had to be an adventurous child to climb to the top.”

 The tree elicits a lot of comments from people walking by on Main Street, said Phelps’ daughter Barbara Garside. 

 “People have definitely been concerned when they hear about the disease,” she said. “They’re very glad it’s being treated.”

 Nancy Phelps said the family is committed to continuing the treatments so that future generations — a ninth is on the way — can continue to enjoy the tree.

 “We think our tree is worth saving,” she said.