Group mounting significant effort to try to save Baba's Tree
Perry Van Houten
The following is a reprint of an article about Baba's Tree and the 2017 Thomas Fire from the Ojai Valley News published on February 2, 2018.
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Anecdotes, activities and stories about Meher Mount - past, present and future.
Filtering by Tag: Coast Live Oak
Baba's Tree Survival Plan
Margaret Magnus
When setting up the first meeting with ISA® Certified Arborist Michael Inaba to make a preliminary assessment of a "special large oak" at Meher Mount, he asked, “Does that special tree have a name?” Margaret Magnus smiled to herself and said, “Yes, Baba’s Tree.” Then she asked why he had asked.
Inaba said he had had dinner soon after the fire with some people who live on Sulphur Mountain. They were recounting the fire damage in the area and mentioned the tree. He later referred to Baba’s Tree as a landmark tree.
On January 5, 2018, Meher Mount met with Inaba to evaluate Baba's Tree and to start drawing up a survival and regeneration plan.
Read MoreBaba's Tree in Seclusion
Eric Turk
During His Advent, Meher Baba very often would go into a self-imposed, confined seclusion for extended periods of time to do His inner work.
Meher Baba disclosed that he did His “Universal Work” at these times — work not for His own sake as He, suffering for all as God in human form, had nothing to gain — but for the spiritual advancement of all of creation.
Now, the Coast Live Oak at Meher Mount that Meher Baba sat under alone in 1956 and known as Baba’s Tree is in seclusion.
Read MoreSigns of Life in Baba's Tree After the Thomas Fire
Margaret Magnus
A sign of life for Baba’s Tree is foliage – both old and new. For those limbs connected to Baba’s Tree trunk and root system, there are still green leaves, even a month-and-a-half after the fire.
Read MoreFire Burns Baba's Tree - Twice
Sam L. Ervin
Fire has been a visitor to Baba’s Tree and to Meher Mount more than once. The Thomas Fire shattered the tree’s crown and much of the trunk on December 4, 2017.
On October 14, 1985, fire ravaged and destroyed nearly all Meher Mount. A month after the New Life Fire, Baba’s Tree looked dead. It was black, leafless, and terribly scarred. The main trunk was hollowed out and black inside. Limbs over 30 feet in the air had burned. The great limb above Meher Baba’s seat had burned nearly through by the trunk with its furthermost branches fallen to the earth.
Read MoreBaba's Tree Featured in Article on "Ojai's Trees"
Margaret Magnus
Just as the October 2014 board meeting at Meher Mount was winding up, contributing writer for The Ojai Valley Visitors Guide Perry Van Houten arrived to find out more about Baba’s Tree for an article he was writing. Board President Sam Ervin took him on a tour and provided background information along with a number of photos.
What follows is the section about Baba’s Tree from the article “Ojai’s Trees” by Perry Van Houten published in the Winter 2014 edition of the The Ojai Valley Visitors Guide and used with permission from the publisher, Ojai Valley News.
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