Photo: The 165-year-old Cooper Beech tree at the intersection of Common Street and Concord Avenue on the Belmont Town Green.

The community celebration of the life of the Copper Beech at the Unitarian Church, will take place on the Belmont Town Green on Sunday, May 3 at 12:30 p.m.

Join the First Church in Belmont UU, the town’s Shade Tree Committee and Department of Public Works, and the Henry Frost Preschool at 404 Concord Ave. as the community honors the beauty and legacy of the beloved cooper beech tree.

Estimated at approximately 165 years old, the tree – Fagus grandifolia – began as a seedling when Belmont was incorporated as a town in 1859 and the start of the US Civil War. Over its lifetime, the cooper beech provided food from the nuts it produces to various birds including ruffed grouse and wild turkeys, raccoons, foxes, white-tailed deer, rabbits, squirrels and opossums.

The tree has succumb to beach leaf disease, caused by a newly-recognized nematode (roundworm) first discovered in Ohio in 2012.

The celebration will include remarks and a history of the cooper beech by Jay Marcotte, DPW director, a song from the Children’s Choirs, a poem from Richard Waring, a ritual of memories by tying ribbons on the tree’s branches, a presentation of artworks as gifts, and a ritual of release lead by Rev. Martha Durkee-Neuman.