A Move Rooted in Controversy : Nature: Arborists disagree whether a 300-year-old oak can be successfully transplanted.

In an action criticized by some environmentalists, workers Friday will move a mighty oak tree estimated to be 300 years old to a new home about 100 feet away to make way for a Ventura Freeway expansion project.

Valley Crest Tree Co., tree-moving experts with more than 30 years experience, cite their success rate and defend the logic behind the process of boxing trees in gigantic planters and replanting them with essential roots intact.

Opinion is divided, however, among environmentalists and arborists on whether adult oaks--those with trunks at least eight inches in diameter--can thrive after transplanting. Some say it’s better to plant seedlings than to move old trees. Others argue that most trees can be successfully moved--if one is willing to spend the money to maintain them.

In a 1987 project that would give poet Joyce (“Only God Can Make a Tree”) Kilmer hives, the company moved a grove of nearly 1,500 oak, red shank, and sycamore trees at the Lake Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks. They were later replanted at a golf course constructed in the development.

The company claims, over the contentions of environmentalists, that 99% of the trees moved in that project have survived.

“If a tree dies as a result of root pruning, it’s usually within the first 30 days,” said John Mote, who heads the $100,000 project for Valley Crest.

The 300-year-old oak is one of six trees to be moved for the freeway project, which will include the construction of a freeway off-ramp and a retaining wall at the site, said Patrick Ross, Caltrans project director.

Moving 240 tons of earth and tree in a wooden box seven feet deep and 24 feet across is a tricky undertaking that requires patience, know-how and a balancing act between construction and botany, said Mote, who has worked with the Valley Crest Tree Co. for eight years.

First, construction workers carefully dig around the tree with pickaxes and shovels to avoid damaging its root system. Next, wooden sidewalls are placed around the tree to contain the root ball, its nutritional source, and key root systems, Mote said.

Finally, workers tunnel under the tree and place a bottom board to support and contain the tree. Then the tree is set on steel beams and wheeled by an expansive dolly system to another site. The process takes about four months, Mote said.

The six trees have all been boxed, but the largest tree will be the first to be moved.

For all their efforts, which some critics applaud, arborists across the state shudder at the idea of severing an ancient tree from its roots and moving it in what amounts to an oversized flower box.

More important, few if any believe an adult tree can actually survive such a process.

“Most arborists, most people working with oak, sincerely doubt the potential for success of these kinds of moves,” said Sharon Johnson, a member of the statewide Oak Foundation and the author of a book on the native California trees. “Whenever you fool around with the roots of an adult oak tree you’re asking for trouble,” she said.

And the majestic 50-foot-tall oak tree that sits behind the Sagebrush Cantina in Calabasas is a particularly sensitive subject, Johnson said, because of its history and its unique structure.

It is said that the big oak, which is really two trees intertwined, was once the dividing line for the El Escorpion and Mission San Fernando ranchos. In addition, it is a heritage oak, a large tree protected by state and federal environmental laws.

Rosie Dagit, a certified arborist and field biologist retained by Calabasas, agrees with Johnson.

According to Dagit, who is conducting an expansive study on the subject of moving trees, there is little research and no long-term data to support the success rates claimed by the company.

“This is the world’s most expensive firewood,” Dagit said.