Auburn to plant replacement oaks at Toomer's Corner in February
The replacement trees for the poisoned oaks at Auburn's Toomer's Corner will be planted in February. The school made the announcement Friday.
"Our goal all along was to restore the corner with large trees at the earliest opportunity," Auburn assistant vice president for facilities management Dan King said in a statement. "Last summer we completed the hardscape to improve aesthetics and the pedestrian experience. The only thing missing was the trees. We think this plan honors the tradition of the historic original oaks."
The original oaks were poisoned in 2010 by Harvey Updyke after Auburn beat Alabama in the Iron Bowl en route to the BCS Championship. Updyke called in to the Paul Finebaum show as "Al from Dadeville" to admit to the crime and was subsequently tracked down and arrested. He served six months in prison for the crime and was released in June 2013.
Updyke's poisoning killed the trees and Auburn cut them down in April 2013. As part of the plan to plant the new trees at the iconic corner, 30 descendants of the original oaks – Auburn made clones of the trees before they died – will also be planted leading from Samford Hall to Toomer's Corner.
The new trees at Toomer's Corner will also be mature oaks. The decision was made for bigger trees so that students could roll the trees as soon as possible. It's an Auburn tradition to roll the trees with toilet paper to celebrate a big win.
"By planting mature oaks, we hope to be able to resume the rolling tradition much sooner than we could if we planted younger trees," King said.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
