The Goose Island Oak

— Nature is resilient; nature is strong. As Texas starts to rebound from the devastating effects of hurricane Harvey, I was taken back to the Big Tree at Goose Island State Park, just a few miles north of Rockport. The city of Rockport and other coastal Texas cities took the brunt of the hurricane. Besides Rockport, Port Aransas, Corpus Christi and even the US fourth most populous city, Houston, suffered a catastrophic disaster with Harvey. Nevertheless, this oak tree in Rockport resisted and is still standing. Known also as the Big Tree, this live oak tree is over a thousand years old. There are cables and metal poles helping hold its heavy branches and preventing them from breaking. The trunk circumference is 35 feet 1 3/4 inches (10.71 meters) in diameter. The average trunk diameter is 11 feet 2 1/4 inches (3.41 meters). Its crown is 89 feet (27.1 meters) with a height of 44 feet (13.4 meters).