Sandy Masuo can name her top 10 favorite trees at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino. Her credibility is impeccable: as botanical content specialist at the institution, she can speak in encyclopedic and enthusiastic detail about how old a tree is, and what it does for the Earth.
She was one of the experts on hand for “American Landmarks: Oaks,” a guided tour and discussion of some of the most significant oaks on The Huntington’s grounds. About 100 people attended the event on May 8, related to LA2026, a series of conversations tied to the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence seen through a California lens.
Masuo talked about how oaks, a familiar sight around the state, are a keystone species, supporting a disproportionately huge range of other living things, from the acorn woodpecker to insects, fungi and butterflies and moths, tiny wasps, and lichens.
Three oaks make it to Masuo’s Top 10 list: the Virginia Oak in the Stroll Garden, the Pasadena Oak in the mausoleum, and the Coast Live Oak in the Chinese Garden, a likely candidate to have been living when the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration 250 years ago.
“When it was very young, this tree suffered some of kind massive injury that disturbed its main (trunk) and so it formed this kind of forked crown that’s down here,” she said. “It’s very difficult to tell how old this tree is. It was definitely here before Henry Huntington bought this property.”
The event was a unique chance to think about something as familiar as oak trees in a deeper cultural and historical context, while also enjoying the gardens at dusk, officials said.
A panel discusses the botanical, cultural and historical importance of oaks in California and North America. They included Wallace Cleaves, chairman of the board of the Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy in Altadena and associate dean and director of the University Writing Program at UC Riverside.
Cleaves reported on the oaks on the conservancy property in Altadena that survived the Eaton fire in January 2025, and how Indigenous people connected to it and used it for food.
Jared Farmer, professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as an environmental historian, spoke about witness trees throughout American history. A photo of an aged “oak cookie” at the Smithsonian, sewed in spots to preserve it , inspired him to talk about oaks as monuments, memorials, and landmarks.
“On this semi-quincentennial year, I feel like I am, we all are witnessing grave injury that will require great repair, kind of national suturing,” he said, citing examples in American history when the Constitution did not hold.
Nicole Cavender, director of the botanical gardens at The Huntington, and self-confessed tree nerd, discussed oaks in The Huntington’s grounds, and how botanists continue to learn and preserve them.
Amy Braden, director of program for EMSI, or the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute, said the goal of the event was to bring people together ‘to have rich conversations, and we want those conversations to talk about the themes related to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration” as it relates to California and the West.
EMSI is holding 18 conversations at partner institutions such as The Huntington, but also the Autry Museum of the American West, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes / El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and USC Libraries.
Each event hopes to encourage more discussion about national identities, the connection between regional and national narratives, democracy and human relationships to the land.
The Huntington’s own related multi-year initiative is “This Land Is…” a bow to Woody Guthrie’s 1940s folk song and focusing on land as “both a geographical and metaphorical space of promise, struggle, and belonging.”
Aside from the landmark oaks event, it will include gallery reinterpretations, a major exhibition and companion publication, a renovated garden, and educational programs.
“At a time when the public places trust in cultural institutions to help navigate complex issues, we are committed to honoring that responsibility as we reflect on the nation’s founding,” said Karen R. Lawrence, president of The Huntington. “’This Land Is…’ draws on the breadth of our collections to explore the centrality of land as both common and contested ground. The ellipsis in the title is intentional—it reminds us that the story is unfinished, and that we each have a role in shaping what comes next.”
Oak Meadow, a new landscape opening in June that features California native plants as well as North American species that have adapted to Southern California, and iconic American trees.
Longtime volunteer Leti Gonzalez helped guide groups from tree to tree, learning lore on the way, that St. Junipero Serra walked from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara without ever leaving the shade of a Coast Live Oak, so abundant were the iconic trees in the 18th century.
“Indigenous people relied on the oak for food, medicine and fuel,” said Gonzalez, a school psychologist with the Alhambra Unified School District. “Oaks have been key to human survival. Oaks also support our ecosystems of insects, birds, fungi and pollinators. And Huntington botanists and scientists are working hard to conserve oak species.”
Masuo pointed tree lovers to other distinctive trees at The Huntington, including the Montezuma Cypress in front of the botanical center, that is “just so majestic and huggable and beautiful.”
Then there’s the quirky Baja Poplar standing with no airs in The Huntington’s west parking lot.
“It’s not symmetrical,” Masuo said. “It has a big weird dead snag on the top, but there’s always a red tail hawk perching there, and so, sometimes I love a tree because it’s an individual that is distinctive or it’s something about that tree that’s very meaningful.”