This is coolbert: If you look at map of Alaska, the very northern part of the state, referred to as the "north slope", you may see an area designated as Naval Petroleum Reserve #4. This was an area set aside by law as being reserved as a natural resource for the U.S. Navy use only. It is thought [has it actually ever been confirmed?] that under the tundra of the north slope there does exist a enormous reserve of oil. Oil that is to be used as a domestic source of fuel for the U.S. Navy. Not to be touched except in a time of crisis when it is needed. And in this way the U.S. government is acting as did the Venetian government did centuries earlier. At the time, Venetian officials would go into their forested areas and marked and set aside old growth trees of stature. Trees that would be saved for later use in ships of Venice built in the Arsenal. This practice has been touched upon in the previous blog entry.

And the U.S. government has in the past, almost two hundred years ago now, also had an interest in setting aside valuable timber resources for shipbuilding. When the first ships of the U.S. Navy were built, ships such as the U.S.S. Constitution, live oak was the wood most favored by the shipwrights. Live oak is very dense, and the trees also grows in unusual shapes. These shapes would allow for skilled shipwrights to cut particularly shaped sections of wood that precluded joinery. Great strength could be obtained from a single section of wood rather than joined pieces. Shipwrights in advance would comb live oak forests searching for that particular tree coveted and prized for shape and size. This tree would be marked, just as the Venetians had done, for future use in ship building.

So valuable was the live oak for shipbuilding that it became a scarce commodity. President John Quincy Adams had enough forethought at the time [remarkable for the era] to set aside a preserve for live oak. A naval preserve that would contain trees to be used in future ship building. Click here to see a description of this preserve.

It was evidently from this preserve that wood of live oak was obtained for a refurbishment of the U.S.S. Constitution in 1926. This over one hundred years after the preserve had been established, the wood was put to good use.

"However, in 1926 live oak timbers from the Pensacola area were found to be useful in the restoration of the USS Constitution, a National Monument."

Another scheduled refurbishment of the Constitution is scheduled for 2007. A whole lot of live oak planking is needed. And a valuable source of trees has been found. It seems a large stand of live oak trees was being felled as part of a golf course development in Tallahassee, FL. And these trees were to be chipped and discarded?! A inspired citizen contacted the Navy and donated the trees which were eagerly accepted. A valuable source of live oak was going to waste and will now be put to good use. It is important to realize that trees of this size for use as planking or beams are just not normally obtainable in the great size required for the refurbishment project.

"That's because 50 to 60 giant live oaks that were removed for golf course
construction are going to be used for restoration of the nation's oldest,
most famous warship, the USS Constitution.

The live oaks were cut down earlier this year, and they were moved Saturday
to a field near the SouthWood sales center. The Navy eventually will
transport the trees to Boston, where they will be turned into beams for use
in a 2007 rehabilitation of the Constitution's interior frame."

"The resulting logs are three to six feet in diameter and 20 feet long. The
Navy will transport them to Boston, where each one will be milled into a
single beam 16 feet long and 12 inches high by 14 inches wide. The beams
will be used in the interior frame of the Constitution."

These trees, and perhaps others like them, are living treasures, otherwise unobtainable in such size any more. And these were going to be chipped and burned!!

coolbert.