Frank Knight fell in love with New England’s tallest elm tree in 1956 and maintained that romance for 54 years. Knight was a middle-aged logger when he met Herbie, a towering elm tree in Yarmouth, Maine, about 10 miles north of Portland. As Yarmouth’s volunteer tree warden, Knight was plagued by an outbreak of Dutch elm disease that was killing off Maine’s trees by the hundreds. The volunteer warden realized he was powerless to protect an entire forest, but he was determined to save Herbie, a massive elm more than 100 years his senior.
For more than five decades, Frank Knight directed workers to pare away infected branches and sections of trunk, and the tree survived 14 Dutch elm disease relapses.
In 2010, at the age of 217, Herbie succumbed to the Dutch elm fungus. At the time of Herbie’s passing, Frank Knight said, “His time has come, and mine is about due too.”
Death will not part Frank Knight from Herbie. At the request of Knight’s family, a casket was made from the timber of the fallen elm, and Yarmouth’s most romantic volunteer arborist will be buried within the tree he loved.
Comments