By KRISTIAN FODEN-VENCIL/Oregon Public Broadcasting
NEWPORT — Anyone driving into Yaquina Bay State Recreation Area will see a majestic Sitka spruce standing in the middle of the road, overlooking the ocean.
It’s known as the Yaquina Muscle Tree, because its beefy branches stick out like a flexing bodybuilder. For generations, people have gotten married next to it, taken graduation pictures underneath it, and otherwise just appreciated the beloved, 150-year-old evergreen.
But recently it’s had some issues, and Oregon State Parks officials are trying to figure out what to do with it. It started when the tree sprouted a big, flat, red and yellow mushroom.
“A park ranger saw these fruiting bodies and notified me,” said state parks arborist Kathryn Charlton.
Then during a storm last winter, a large, diseased branch broke off. If anyone had been underneath it, they could have been seriously injured or killed. Charlton recognized the red and yellow fungus as dyer’s polypore or “velvet top” fungus.
“It’s also commonly called a cow pie fungus because when it dies back, it turns dark brown and looks like a cow patty,” Charlton said.
Scientifically it’s known as Phaeolus schweinitzii. The spores get into the roots of the tree, allowing the fungus to spread upward and rot the wood until the tree can no longer stand.
Charlton drilled some core samples, to see how much healthy wood remained, and she found it was just about 12 percent. So something needed to be done.
But because the muscle tree is so beloved, the parks agency didn’t just want to cut it down. Instead, they posted an online survey to ask the community what to do.
“One suggestion was to create a cool wood sculpture from the base of the tree,” Charlton said. “Depending on how much decay is in there, that might not actually work. Another option is to chop it down completely. And then another option that we’re working through is to donate the logs to a local watershed association … to provide habitat for fish.”
Yet another suggestion is to cut and display a big slice of the tree, with markers indicating what was happening while each of the approximately 150 annual tree rings were growing.
Landscape designer Eileen Stark of Portland believes the best option is to chop off the branches and create a “snag.” That is a dead, or dying, tree that remains standing.
“Small mammals, reptiles, amphibians like tree frogs, and even some butterflies will roost under a snag’s loose bark, as well as bats,” Stark said.
She likens a snag to a downed log in the forest, which can support all kinds of fungi and critters. Soft, decaying wood in a snag can do the same. Also, a woodpecker or an amphibian can easily dig out that soft wood to make a home. And unlike on a log, a snag habitat is high off the ground where it’s safer and drier.
Stark said few people understand the value of a snag. They tend to either want to see a full, healthy tree, or to cut a diseased tree down to make way for a new one.
“I think it’s mostly an aesthetic thing,” Stark said.
“People think dead and dying trees don’t look nice. They want to have a nice vibrant one in place. But they are just absolutely vital to wildlife. There’s a real huge shortage of snags.”
Snags can happen naturally by disease, lightning, drought and old age. But historically humans haven’t appreciated them, which is why Stark thinks turning the muscle tree into a snag would help underline their importance.
The agency set up a website for people to share their memories of the big tree.
Burke Martin, the manager at Yaquina Bay State Park, will help decide the future of the muscle tree, and said it’s a hard decision.
“The intention was not to just make a bigger paved area,” Martin said. “We’re trying to figure out a way to make an area where people can remember the tree.”
At about 150 years old, the muscle tree has watched over the city since about the time it was turned into a seaside resort and named Newport.
“It’s such an iconic part of the park,” said Ashley Barger, who manages the Wind Rift art gallery in Newport. “To drive around it is so special.”
A decision on the future of the muscle tree is expected in June.
- This story originally appeared May 10, 2025 on Oregon Public Broadcasting.
I love Stark’s idea to allow the Spruce to become a snag. I had 2 trees which were becoming too large for their space. I deliberately created 2 snags in my yard by having the tops and branches trimmed away, leaving tall standing trunks. The wildlife habitat that resulted has been rewarding~ and entertaining! Every year a giant pterodactyl (pileated woodpecker) came in and put on quite a show savagely hammering and ripping at the soft wood. The holes it left attracted insects, which attracted other birds such as swallows. Occasionally a raptor like an owl or falcon would survey the feeding ground from the top of a snag. I finally had to have the snags taken down because they became used up and too soft~ but I left much of their rotting carcasses on the ground. I noticed crows using the larger pieces of sawdust for their nests. The snags still serve.
Stark’s suggestion would help the general public realize the value of avoiding the prissy practice of removing entire trees (even paying to have the stumps ground out!) to replace with water-wasting archaic lawn grass. Which has to be mowed, because people don’t seem to have the vision to plant
low-maintenance wildflower meadows~
which are another useful form of wildlife habitat
and a photographer’s dream…
I agree. The wildlife will thank us for it, and I believe that when people get used to it they will love it almost as much as they love the tree today.
I agree as well. A snag would have a number of years remaining to exist in this location. Maybe some educational information in the nearby pull out would explain what a snag is and its importance to the overall ecology of the surrounding area.
Yes