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Gingko root wad finds new life at library By Myles Murphy Ashland Daily Tidings The library ginkgo tree is long gone, but some say its spirit lives on inside the remodeled Carnegie building. Talent woodcarver Tom Hopkins has sculpted a chunk of the old tree into a work of art now on display in the children's' section of the library. 'Megamorphosis,' a butterfly floating over an open book, appears in the children's section at the Ashland Public Library. The piece was made from a gingko tree cut to make way for expansion. Ashland Daily Tidings/CHRIS MILLER Hopkins reflected for some time before freeing his sculpture "Megamorphosis" from the heart of the long buried root wad of a ginkgo tree felled for the expansion of the Ashland branch of the Jackson County library. "A Hawaiian friend of mine showed me how to pray with the wood - and then you kind of let go," Hopkins said. "It's a process of eliminating everything else in the block and (the sculpture) is what's left." Hopkins' piece - a large butterfly hovering over a carved book - was purchased by the Friends of the Ashland Public Library for the children's' section of the remodeled Carnegie building. The Carnegie was reopened in May and Megamorphosis was unveiled at a gathering of library supporters prior to the opening. The Friends have donated the piece to the library. "This is the first use of the wood from the tree," according to a Friends statement. "It will serve as part of a promise to the community that the ginkgo did not perish in vain." The tree, planted at the turn of the century, was the focus of debate over the construction of the library addition. It was voted Ashland's Tree of the Year in 2000, but efforts to move it rather than cut it down during construction were fruitless. Hopkins, a 54-year-old self-taught woodcarver, followed the heated community debate over the fate of the ginkgo, and was inspired to do his part to immortalize the tree. "I read about it in the paper and had been following the controversy," Hopkins said. "I like experimenting with all kinds of wood, and I sculpt with what I can find." After the tree was cut, Hopkins approached the contractor working on the project and asked if he could have the root wad - the tangled mass of trunk, roots and soil which had for so long supported the ancient tree. "They said it was headed for the landfill and that I could have it if I hauled it away," Hopkins said. At about the same time, Colin Swales and other ginkgo advocates had other plans for the stump. Ginkgo stumps will often regenerate, sprouting fresh shoots to grow into new trees, and a movement was afoot to replant the root wad at North Mountain Park. But Hopkins was unaware of that plan, and drove off with chunk of tree literally under the nose of an incensed - at the time - Swales. "As I was hauling it off, he was chasing me down taking pictures," Hopkins said. "I didn't know what he was up to." Ashland City Councilor Cate Hartzell contacted Hopkins soon after to iron out the situation. He offered up the stump, but with no way to transport it, the wood was left in Hopkins' care. "I told him if he was able to carve anything, we'd love to have some kind of piece of it for the library," Hartzell said. A year passed, and the issue leaked from the consciousness of most Ashlanders. But then Hartzell got a call from Hopkins, who said he had something too show her. Both Hartzell and Swales were impressed. "It was this delightful, healing moment," Hartzell said. "People had value for those trees and whatever way we could bring a transformed piece from those trees back into the library, I felt it would be good for the community." Hopkins said he was aware of the importance of the ginkgo, and put a lot of thought and research into the piece. "I was pretty sure whatever was made was going to go back to the library, so I thought about how I could honor the ginkgo tree," Hopkins said. "I read up about ginkgoes and they're amazing trees. They're living fossils and it's taken so much for the tree to adapt over the last 200 million years. "At first, I thought about the idea of transformations, and the inspiration came to me of a bookworm and a book," Hopkins said. "Then it became not just any book, but a book of the ginkgo - such great knowledge in the ginkgo, but the pages are kind of closed to humans." The worm became a butterfly bursting out of the pages of a book carved from the old tree. "Within the book is 200 million years of tenacious adaptiveness and ability to survive no matte what �" Hopkins wrote about the carving. "A word of caution to this great butterfly, hide from any humans who would like to honor you with 'Butterfly of the Year.'" The job was not an easy one, according to the artist. Hopkins brought both book and butterfly out of a single block of wood, wood which turned out to be so brittle it chipped poorly under his chisel. He was forced to do most of his work in a slow process using abrasives such as sandpaper. Also, finding enough good wood in the stump to carve was itself a challenge. "What I found was the ginkgo was a third rotten, so I had a hard time getting anything out of it," Hopkins said. "All that controversy and the tree was pretty much dying anyway." The remainder of the tree has also been saved, and is still drying in a warehouse under the eye of Ashland Mayor Alan DeBoer, to be carved when cured and then transformed into furniture, shelves or other final touches in the library. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -