The Spreading Copper Beech

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It stands in absolute majesty over the great lawn at Planting Fields Arboretum, 80 feet tall with leafy arms that reach out 100 feet.

The copper beech was not born on Long Island, but came here to put down roots. In its youth, it was one of a pair of copper beeches that grew outside the home of a little girl named Mai Rogers in Fairhaven, Mass. When she became the wife of an industrialist named William Robertson Coe and they built an estate in Oyster Bay called Planting Fields, she longed for the trees that were the companions of her childhood.

When her father died, Mai Coe asked if the trees could be transplanted to her new home. Each tree weighed 29 tons. This was in 1915, and it cost $4,000 and took 21/2 days to ship the beeches 300 miles by barge. Then, it took 12 days for a team of 72 horses to carry them through the streets of Oyster Bay. All the electrical wires along the way had to be taken down. One tree didn't survive transplanting, but the other has reigned ever since.

Vinnie Simeone, assistant director of Planting Fields, says the copper beech is showing signs of stress. Footsteps have compacted the soil around the tree and it doesn't help when visitors -- even sweethearts -- carve their initials in it. The tree has been fenced off and seedlings have been propagated.