Sea Pines to preserve, showcase 20 live oaks

Long before Harbour Town and Sea Pines Resort, there was a grove of six live oaks.

The two rows of 320-year-old trees in Six Oaks Park predate the founding of Beaufort in 1711 and the creation of Lawton Plantation Mansion, whose entrance was marked by the grove around 1820. The trees outlasted that mansion, too, and still stand today as some of the oldest and finest oaks in Sea Pines.

Today, Six Oaks Park is the centerpiece of a new preservation effort, the Sea Pines Legacy Oak program. Launched by Sea Pines Community Services Associates, the program includes the grove and 14 other individual trees spread throughout the community, visible by foot or on a roughly three-and-a-half hour bicycle ride.

Also included on the list is the Liberty Oak, a 300-year-old tree at Harbour Town, under which Sea Pines' founder Charles Fraser is buried. Some others are located at South Beach and Fish Island Trail.

Sea Pines CSA recently announced the new program, founded by Sea Pines resident and retired landscape architect John Parsons.

Parsons and a team of landscape maintenance committee members set out to find the best and oldest oaks in Sea Pines, excluding those on golf courses and private property. They came up with a list of about 50 trees with picturesque settings, extraordinary shape and varied age before whittling the choices down to 15, Parsons said.

"The trees are gorgeous," he said. "It was a tough choice."

Though the youngest finalist is only 100 years old, other trees are up to 90 feet high and 80 inches in diameter.

The oldest, at Six Oak Park, remain a mystery to Parsons.

Sea Pines CSA learned the trees' age after they were measured by a consultant, Parsons said.

The rest of their history is not clear, though he suspects they were planted by Native Americans.

Each of the trees has been pruned and will receive maintenance through the program, though they are all in good health for now.

More than maintenance, Parsons hopes the program brings the trees recognition.

"What I was about when I started this thing is, 'Let residents and visitors better understand and appreciate these trees,'" he said. "They're taken for granted."

Follow reporter Rebecca Lurye on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Rebecca.

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This story was originally published July 12, 2015 at 1:05 PM with the headline "Sea Pines to preserve, showcase 20 live oaks."