While I was walking back to the newsroom from the men’s homeless shelter in downtown Vancouver, something caught my eye on Jefferson Street: the distinctive fan-shaped leaves of a ginkgo tree.
Ginkgos are “living fossils” that grew during prehistoric times. They’re practically pest-resistant and are hard to kill.
I know this because the first time I stopped to admire a ginkgo tree was at the sprawling estate of the late Ed and Dollie Lynch in Vancouver’s Northwest neighborhood. In May, I wrote about their 12,000-square-foot home being on the market for just less than $3.7 million.
When the home eventually sells, the money will go into the couple’s fund at the Community Foundation for Southwest Washington. The Lynches left more than 98 percent of their estate to local causes and charities.
Ed Lynch planted the ginkgo tree and shaped it using ropes with weights that bowed out the branches, a technique he saw being used in Japan.
“That was Ed’s big thing, the ginkgo tree,” said Jim Mains, his friend, neighbor and personal assistant. “Ed wanted only big, bold Christmas lights on the ginkgo tree. And then he’d always want more and more, and the circuits couldn’t hold it.”
The tree’s fan-shaped leaves are imprinted in designs around the home.
In November, the leaves turn a striking shade of golden yellow. And then — overnight, it seems — they all drop at once, leaving mounds of gold at the front of the house.
“It just reminded me of Ed because he’s the kind of person who, when he makes up his mind to do something, he does it,” Mains said. And, like ginkgo trees, “Ed withstood so much in his life and lived so long.”
Ed Lynch died May 10, 2015 at age 94.
Emma Stammer, the city’s neighborhood trees coordinator, said that cities, including Vancouver, are planting ginkgo trees more often because they thrive in difficult urban environments. So, a tree can be planted in the lush garden of a wealthy businessman and on the planting strip on the poorer, industrial side of town and do well.
To many, the streets around Share House are an eyesore. Downtown gives way to warehouses and run-down residences; there are clear signs that people here struggle with homelessness.
Come November, those streets in what is arguably the poorest part of Vancouver will be lined with golden trees.
Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from our newspaper beats to write the story behind the story, fill in the story or just tell a story.
