Diablo Woodworkers Celebrate a Concord Valley Oak Tree

Would you buy a house because of a beautiful Tree in the yard? Well, one Concord homeowner did just that. This wonderful, beautiful tree's life came to an end in September of 2003, not because of the tree's fault. Yes, the tree caused a danger to the homeowner and the neighborhood. Who's fault is this? It is the fault of humans that settled to close to this magnificent tree. We built houses, roads, and parked cars at its feet. We strung power lines through its branches.

Loved by the homeowner and the neighborhood and known to the City of Concord due to the damage this tree caused. Yes, and it continued to grow and grow competing for space with we humans.

The moral of the story is, don't put humans and their property in the way of a 300 year old Valley Oak.

The homeowner called in the Diablo Woodworkers, a club that was founded at the start of 1997 to serve interested woodworkers in the Diablo Valley of the San Francisco East Bay Area, to help preserve the tree's remains rather than see it go only as firewood.

The items displayed are made from the wood of this 300 year old giant. Each item shows the creativity of the artist/woodworker (all members of the Diablo Woodworkers) and retains the internal beauty of the tree. We thank the homeowner for thinking of us so that we could help create new life for the wood from this tree.

The Concord Valley Oak craft items are in the Concord Gallery, 1765 Galindo in Concord, 925-691-6140, November 1 - December 31. Lots of parking behind the building. Open day/hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11 am to 4 pm. There will be a reception on December 4th 2 - 4 pm. If you enjoy watercolor paintings you should know this gallery is sponsored by the California Water Color Society that has a large wonderful ongoing display in the gallery. Thanks go to Bob Chapla for arranging for us to show our woodwork in this gallery. A big thanks to all the woodworkers that used their imaginations to come up with some great creations from this wonderful wood. There are about 25 items that are on display from the 300 year old Valley Oak, you can see many of these items at Concord Oak Wood Crafts     One of the Concord oak craft displays at the Concord Gallery.

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