Fallen tree to become natural art

When Hurricane Irma blew through Florida in September, the severe storm uprooted several trees in the Oakland Park community. Instead of turning the largest of the downed trees into mulch, the Oakland Park team decided to move it and turn it into a piece of natural art.

The giant live oak had been growing on the north end of Lake Brim Drive in Winter Garden. After it fell, Greg Bryla, a landscape architect and partner/studio leader with Dix.Hite + Partners, suggested it be saved somehow as an art element.

On Wednesday, Nov. 29, a landscape crew relocated the tree to its new home, on the shore of a lake just outside the future amenity center, at 1000 Civitas Way.

Thom Cunningham, vice president of Crescent Communities, the developer of Oakland Park, said the plan is to peel the bark off and seal what remains of the tree. A trail will be built around the lake, and the tree will be one of the amenities on this trail.