Apartments planned near 350-year-old Port Royal oak tree. Residents rally to save it

In a forest on a former Port Royal plantation featuring more than 30 “landmark” trees, one live oak stands out: At 65 feet high, it’s taller. Its trunk circumference is 30 feet, 1 inch, making it bigger. And at an estimated 350 years old, it’s older than the United States.

Those are not the only features that make Beaufort County’s largest and oldest oak tree — and one of the largest in South Carolina —stand out. At the base of its trunk, below the sun-blocking canopy, Chuck Yahres stoops at the grave of Mary M. Pope. The words on the gravestone are fading, but records show Pope died 174 years ago, on Nov. 17, 1848, when the tree that guards her grave was only about 176. Pope was a slave.

“I just have a feeling we’ve got more graves under these trees,” says Yahres, chairperson of the Baptist Church of Beaufort’s Cemetery Committee.

On the secluded property at 2900 Oak View Drive off of Parris Island Gateway overlooking Battery Creek, once known as Cherry Hill Plantation, Spartanburg-based Johnson Development Associates is proposing five, three-story apartment buildings, with a capacity of roughly 200 units, in addition to six townhomes and a clubhouse.

Citing potential impacts of the housing on one of South Carolina’s most significant trees and Pope’s grave site — and possibly others — residents are rallying support for buying and protecting the 12-acre parcel in a campaign called “save the Port Royal heritage oak.”

They argue the tree rivals the celebrated “Angel Oak” tree in Charleston in its historical and ecological significance and even surpasses it in some ways.

“You find paradise and what do you do?” says Hope Cunningham. “You come in and pave it over. It makes no sense.”

Cunningham and Yahres are residents of Pinckney Retreat, a development next door where an eco-friendly approach was used that saved hundreds of historic trees, but they’re worried about the plans for next door.

While the Angel Oak and its sprawling wingspan of branches is a focal point of the city of Charleston’s public park system and visited by 400,000 annually, the Port Royal oak, which isn’t as sexy despite its girth, remains a hidden gem on private property that’s not getting the upkeep experts say it needs to thrive. They also question whether it could survive a housing development even with protections in place, and say the tree and grave are worthy of more protections.

In the wake of the apartment proposal, they’re working to raise the profile of the Port Royal tree and pressing the property owner to work with them in conserving the land.

“If this property was conserved and taken care of,” says Charlie Calvert,” another Pinckney Retreat resident, “it could be a tremendous community asset to the community.”

For now, the Port Royal housing development is in limbo.

On Sept. 1, the Port Royal Design Review Board rejected a request by Johnson Development asking for a height waiver to build the three-story apartment buildings. The maximum allowable height is 2.5 stories.

Noah Krepps, Port Royal’s planning director, said Johnson Development had to go back to the drawing board after the Design Review Board rejected its height variance and he’s not sure what will happen next.

“They haven’t come back with any new plans,” Krepps says, “so that’s where we’re at right now.”

Anders Ike, a pre-development manager with Johnson Development Associates, did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

Johnson Development proposed a buffer around the tree with interpretive panels, Krepps said.

But Michael Murphy, a master arborist who first learned about the tree in 2009, says a culturally and historically significant tree of this stature deserves more protection. While trees near houses can survive even if roots are cut, a larger development can affect not only the root system, he says, but the soil and hydrology.

“The tree may have lived,” Murphy says, “but it certainly would have struggled and it could have died a very slow death after the construction and all the grading and soil changes.”

Merry Land Investments in Evans, Georgia, owns the land, Calvert says, with Johnson Development having an option to buy it.

Residents recently reached out to Merry Land, suggesting that it consider selling the property to a public entity, noting it could apply for public funding that’s available to conserve important lands.

“I hope you will consider the tremendous potential value of conserving these majestic trees and preserving this property as an ecological resource in Beaufort County,” the group wrote to Merry Land on Sept. 21. “We are ready to go to work to raise the money for the purchase of this property, just as The Friends of Whitehall Park successfully campaigned to preserve an 11 acre parcel at Whitehall Plantation.”

Residents don’t think the proposed protections for the oak and other trees are strong enough, and say the proposal awakened them to potential threats.

The plans, they add, also recast the spotlight on a tree they think has been forgotten since it was celebrated as the “heritage tree” of the year in South Carolina in 2013.

Murphy, the master arborist, says its a “wonderful, beautiful tree to look at.”

“I measured the tree at least three times because I didn’t believe it was that size,” says Murphy. “I just couldn’t believe the diameter came out of this tree.”

Angel Tree, considered one of the largest live oak trees east of the Mississippi River, is 25.5 feet around, less than the 30-inch circumference of the Port Royal tree. But assessing tree status involves more factors besides circumference and height, Murphy says, including branch spread and condition.

“If we were comparing champion trees, the Angel Oak would certainly be a bigger champion tree than ours,” Murphy said.

The Port Royal tree is sacred, Murphy adds, because “It’s guarding a cemetery.”

Both trees are about 65 feet tall

But the spread of the branches and canopy of Angel Oak is 60 to 70 feet larger than the Port Royal Oak, which is more compact, giving it a cathedral effect and majesty that inspires awe in those who see it, Murphy says.

“Our tree is just big and historic,” Murphy says, “and that’s why it never got a lot of attention.”

That both the Port Royal oak and Angel Tree survived at all, Murphy said, is amazing considering live oaks were almost wiped out east of the Mississippi.

The estimated age of both trees is between 300 to 400 years, with Murphy estimating the Port Royal tree at 350 years.

While Americans tend to view 300-year-old trees as old, in Europe it’s more like 600 to 700, Murphy said. If trees aren’t threatened by disease or insects and “don’t fall apart,” Murphy added, “There’s no real life expectancy.”