![\"Jonathan](\"https:\/\/blog.wfsu.org\/blog-coastal-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Jonathan-on-oak-small-1024x576.jpg\")
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I’m guessing more of us have sat in the shade of one of these trees than have taken the time to really look at one. A mature southern live oak (Quercus virginiana<\/em>) has a thick, dense trunk from which muscular branches arch out in every direction. If they have the space, and the humans who care for the tree don’t trim them, some branches will touch down and run along the ground, not unlike arms resting on a table; arms grown furry with resurrection ferns and Spanish moss, their trunks clothed in vines and lichens. Between the branches that touch down, and those that reach up and out, their canopy can cover 150 feet. Live oaks can appear quite stately, when they have space.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As Tallahassee has grown and expanded over the last century, we’ve often claimed their space for roads, condominiums, gas stations, and other construction. And when that happens, there are often residents there to protest it. A couple of weeks ago, a Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency meeting ran past midnight as dozens of people spoke on behalf of an oak. A petition to save the Benton Oak, as it is known, garnered over 35,000 signatures. In the end, though, none of that was enough to convince City and County commissioners to alter the rerouting of FAMU Way through the oak’s home in the Boynton Still neighborhood.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"Stanley](\"https:\/\/blog.wfsu.org\/blog-coastal-health\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_9824-small-1024x768.jpg\")