Old Trees in the Villages
 

I love that the developer kept some of the old trees when they build here.

I agree

I love the old trees. Unfortunately, most of the "old" trees in Florida have short shelf-lives and start dying, and have to be removed before they cause damage to nearby building.

My old house up north was built in 1957, and the biggest tree in the back yard was 250 years old. It wasn't even the oldest tree in the neighborhood. But it was a "mama" sugar maple that spawned all of the other sugar maples in a 3-acre perimeter, including 5 other sugar maples in my yard alone.

You won't find 250-year-old trees in The Villages. I doubt you'll even find 150-year-old trees in The Villages. Even water oaks don't live much longer than 50 years.

Ooh. Beg to differ. Live oaks can easily live 200+ years in Florida. And there are many of them.

Several in around horse farm acreage of CR42.

So I double checked and found out that yes - there are older trees in The Villages. None of them are water oaks or laurels though - and those are the ones being considered for removal at the Paradise Rec Center.

There are some southern oaks in the Historic section that are /not/ water or laurel oaks, that are presumably over 300 years old. So that's pretty cool. But they still do eventually die - they're not like Redwoods, which can live over 2000 years.

I love it too. They even moved one to the island at Eastport. I have a courtyard villa and on the other side of my fence is an old giant oak tree.

I like to imagine the stories those trees could tell.

If I recall correctly, a small area of old growth trees (trees at close to their maximum longevity ages of 300+ years) were identified and preserved within the Woodlands Champion golf course?

There are many others scattered in Fenny and the other areas just south of the Turnpike.

They are beautiful as long as they aren’t on your property, you aren’t responsible for the clean up and ongoing maintenance they require, and they aren’t putting your property at risk.

That’s right, they moved some pretty big trees around Eastport, I’d love to know how that was done! They look great and sunset island is shaping up to be something special :)

Joe

The ones on Buena Vista near Lake Sumter Landing are beautiful.

tophcfa...totally agree. Very messy trees...leaves, acorns, suckers. They are beautiful, lots of shade. Taking care of them on our property is a 6 month production. From about September/Oct to March or April is constant pick-up, raking, pulling. Back problems exist every day and every day is what you will have to do to keep your property looking nice. Why is it they are not planted in the southern areas and many, many in the northern areas? Hmmm

There is a 4 minute video on The Villages Florida utube channel titled "Relocating trees to their new home in Eastport in the Villages" that shows the process. It is interesting involving pneumatic tubes as rollers.

Awesome, thank you!!

Joe

We lost a 2/300-year-old tree to disease from our local churchyard.
Never looks the same when they are gone.

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