Chico woodworker maintains 75-year-old tree of late architect

HISTORY

The 75-year-old tree of George Nakashima’s family took Scot Wineland over two days to prune in New Hope Pennsylvania in July 2025. SCOT WINELAND — CONTRIBUTED

From left to right, George Nakashima, his daughter Mira Nakashima and Scot Wineland pose for a photo at the Museum of Arts and Design in the late 1980s in New York City. Behind them are slabs of walnut cut by Wineland. CONTRIBUTED BY SCOT WINELAND

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By Molly Myers

mmyers@chicoer.com

CHICO >> Chico arborist Scott Wineland travels to Pennsylvania every three to five years for one main purpose — trimming a lace leaf maple tree.

“It is so big that when you’re inside the tree, people walk by and they don’t even know that you’re in it,” Wineland said.

Wineland returned from his most recent pruning visit in early July. While he’s been maintaining the maple for 12 years, the tree itself is 75 years old — just one year older than Wineland.

Katsuharu Nakashima, a Japanese immigrant who brought the tree to America from Japan as a sapling, planted it in 1950 at his family’s home in the town of New Hope. His son, George Nakashima, would go on to be a renowned architect, woodworker and peace activist. In 1982, Nakashima connected with Wineland, a respected woodworker himself.

“They call me ‘the Lorax,’” Wineland said. “I love trees, and I love pruning them correctly.”

For 49 years, Wineland has sold and cut walnut wood in Chico with his business Wineland Walnut, catering to furniture makers. Nakashima requested the Chicoan’s expertise after they met, as he was preparing to build a series of walnut tables. The tables were called Altars for Peace.

“It will be a symbol, a token of man’s aspirations for a creative and beautiful peace, free of political overtones; an expression of love for his fellow man,” Nakashima wrote about the project.

Wineland helped Nakashima by cutting the wood for the first Altar for Peace, located in the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City.

After Nakashima died in 1990, his home became a historical landmark named the George Nakashima Woodworker Complex. This is where the 75-year-old maple lives today.

As the tree grew bigger and harder to maintain, Nakashima’s daughter asked Wineland for help pruning. He gladly obliged.

Pruning the tree this year took over two days. Noticing a crack in one of the main branches, Wineland also built a wooden support for it out of black locust wood.

“It’s quite the privilege to be able to take care of and prune that type of a tree with its historical significance,” Wineland said.