Kitsap Sun
The yew s gnarled, bubbly bark and green limbs – celebrated for decades with an exhibit and fencing at Illahee State Park in Washington – finally came crashing down one day in late December. It was its time, said David Cass, agency forester for Washington State Parks. It was rotten in the middle of the tree and had decayed quite a bit.
Arborists had dated the tree s beginnings as a seed to around the year 1610, the same time Galileo Galilei was first observing the moons of Jupiter. Jim Trainer, a longtime arborist sometimes referred to as Kitsap s Johnny Appleseed, wrote in the Kitsap Sun of the USA TODAY Network that it was likely the oldest Pacific yew in the U.S.