Severson Dells

By Don Miller

Peter, Paul and Mary once sang that, “dragons live forever, but not so little boys.” We add; nor do Bur Oaks.

Two spectacular Bur Oak trees have grown on the south side of the Severson Dells Forest Preserve near the shelter house for perhaps 200 years. Both trees have bark too thick to be scorched by prairie fires over the years, and branches stretching outward from their trunks that provide for a majestic silhouette. Fully leafed out this year and looking healthy, the big oak in the front went during a June 18. The cause: A rotted base.

Related story: What did the Witness Tree Witness?

Aldo Leopold states in his Sand County Almanac, “When school children vote on a state bird, flower or tree they are not making a decision; they are merely ratifying history.” If we could communicate with this Bur Oak, think of the things it could tell us it as seen; native peoples, wolves, bison, millions of migrating birds, over 2400 full moons, some 73,000 setting and rising suns, and so much more.

The live tree will be missed and many of us are sadden, but one of the lessons we tell the kids is that there are few things more important to a habitat than a dead tree. So it is that this Bur Oak begins its second part of its life lying down. It will lie there in state for longer than any of us will be around, collecting so many more stories in the future decades. Come out and visit and pay your respects.

With the tens of thousands of school age students that have visited us, we often stop before these trees and honor them by singing the “Oak Tree Song.”

It seems fitting to sing it now.

“Know, Know Your Oaks”
Sung to the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”
The hand motions for the song are in parenthesis.

Know, know, know your oaks (tap your temple with your finger)
This is how they grow— (palms up, arms out to side)
Red Oaks (hands straight up in the air)
White Oaks (hands still up high, but at your sides)
Pin Oaks (hands straight out to your sides),
Bur Oaks (hands twisted around in strange, uncomfortable position),
And acorns down below, hey!

The four-seasons photo collage of the signature bur oaks (below) was create by Rockford photographer Brad Nordlof of Northern Leaf Imaging. It hangs above the wheelchair ramp near the classroom at Severson Dells Nature Center.