600-Year-Old Oak Tree Cleared for Removal

A tree older than Columbus could soon be cut down, to make way for a new driveway.

Holly Bieler · August 25, 2026 · Thousand Oaks

An oak tree that has stood in Thousand Oaks since the 1400s has been cleared for removal to make way for a driveway, and a member of the HOA board that approved it is asking the city to step in before the chainsaws do.

The tree, tagged Oak No. 1, sits on floodplain land in North Ranch owned by the Westlake North Property Owners' Association. It's six feet across, 75 feet tall and worth roughly $300,000, according to [a letter](https://www.toacorn.com/articles/help-save-mature-city-namesake-trees/) published in the Acorn last week. If the dating holds, it would be older than any tree on record in Thousand Oaks, including the 400-year-old "Lone Oak"[the city cut down](https://www.toacorn.com/articles/landmark-conejo-valley-oak-tree-chopped-down/) in 2011.

The WNPOA board voted to condemn the tree so a driveway could reach a neighboring 16-acre parcel that was marketed as a "preservation opportunity" before it sold. The city's Community Development Department then offered the owner a Class A permit, which is reserved for dead or hazardous trees and skips the review required under Thousand Oaks' oak ordinance.

But a board-certified master arborist who examined the tree in July found it healthy, concluding in a 35-page report that pruning and deadwood removal would reduce its risk rating to minimal.

Randall Witt, a WNPOA board member who said he has monitored the arroyo for 35 years, took the dispute to the Thousand Oaks Planning Commission on Monday. He told commissioners the parcel's new owner had worked outside protections called for by city and state biologists, and he accused the city of abandoning the HOA rather than backing it.

"Oak Tree No. 1 isn't a simple vote-and-walk-away issue," Witt said.

Thousand Oaks has protected its namesake trees since 1972, when a developer [uprooted scores of mature valley oaks](https://www.fs.usda.gov/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr126/psw_gtr126_04_elmendorf.pdf) near the center of town and the council responded with an emergency proclamation. Today any oak more than two inches across is [protected](https://toaks.gov/trees), and grading within 15 feet of a trunk requires a permit.

Commissioners did not respond to Witt's comments. The tree's fate is expected to come before the commission on Sept. 28.