© City of League City

Despite the important role they play in the health and well-being of our communities, old city trees are often the first to be sacrificed to the juggernaut of modern urban expansion. But when the unstoppable force of a new road project in Texas called for a massive oak tree to be cut down last summer, residents rallied to do something that might have seemed impossible -- they decided to move it instead.

For more than a century, longer than anyone in town could remember, the stately Ghirardi Compton Oak tree had grown in the fertile soil of League City, Texas, and likewise in the hearts and minds of the community. So it's no wonder then that when the county laid plans earlier this year for a road to pass over the spot where the tree stood, city leaders voted to spare no expensive in order to relocate it away from the path of destruction.

But at 56 feet tall, 135 inches around, and a weight of more than 518,000 pounds, moving the tree to its new home 1,500 feet away proved a monumental task -- but well worth the effort.

© City of League City

