Dear Mr. Caden and Arnholt-

You are now the owners of the magnificent Southern Magnolia tree located on the front lawn of the old Colonial Bakery site.

This tree was the 2010 winner of the Nashville Tree Foundations’ ‘Big Ole Tree’ Award. Although it is has a double trunk, it is a healthy, well-formed, specimen tree of 86” circumference, 50’ high and a 36’ crown diameter.

Nashville’s Urban Forest is in decline. Almost all the mature trees along this stretch of Franklin Pike have fallen to development. (Most recently the one in front of the now Urban Juicer to make way for one concrete parking space.) The Colonial Bakery Magnolia is one of the last still standing and is a Crown Jewel to the neighborhood.

One of the main functions of a tree is to mitigate stormwater. A magnolia of this size is doing double duty for that purpose because it is evergreen and intercepts rain water year round.

You now own this tree. Will you also be good stewards of it? There are no city ordinances to prevent you from killing this tree so we are calling upon you to do the right thing and look at creative design options to include both your new development and preserve this valuable asset magnolia tree.