When Lisa Gorman noticed that a grove of her majestic oaks had died, she cast her suspicions on seasonal neighbors who wanted a better view of the harbor. The fight that ensued became a town drama that rages on to this day.
The oaks, in particular, elicited public sympathy and imagination. In Maine, oak trees have been medicine, as used by Wabanaki tribes, and building material for furniture, the ribs and beams of ships, lobster-trap runners. With their wide canopies and dense, broad trunks, oaks can capture more than 48 pounds of carbon per year, while their vast, shallow root systems are excellent at managing watershed; they host about 430 moth and butterfly species, according to Kate Garland, a horticulturist at the University of Maine, and support a complex food web. The National Wildlife Federation describes the species as the “tree of life.” When another oak, located in Laite Park, just yards away from Gorman’s property, came down during Tropical Storm Lee, someone left mums at its base, and news of its demise appeared in two local papers.