The world’s oldest oak tree just got a major reprieve from bulldozers, but the battle to keep it alive for another 13,000 years is still heating up. After an 18-month legal showdown, conservation groups, city officials, and a real estate developer finally hammered out a deal that pushes a massive housing project a full 1,000 feet away from the Jurupa Oak, a clonal colony of Palmer’s oak that’s been cloning itself since the last Ice Age.
This isn’t just any tree. According to People, the Jurupa Oak has been standing in Southern California’s Jurupa Valley for roughly 13,000 years, making it one of the oldest living organisms on the planet. It’s also a cultural cornerstone for the Kizh Nation, an Indigenous group that has long considered the oak sacred.
