Lady Liberty is one of the oldest Bald Cypress trees in the world. Located in Florida’s Seminole county, the 2,000 year old tree could be cloned by Archangel Ancient Tree Archive to preserve its superior genetics.

A story in the Orlando Sentinel reports that its older and larger sibling tree once located nearby called The Senator was accidentally burned down in January 2012. Jim Duby, Seminole County’s natural-lands program manager, said it’s important to clone Lady Liberty before the tree’s demise.

[pl_blockquote cite=”Jim Duby, Seminole County’s natural-lands program manager”]Having what happened to The Senator, we cannot sit back and not do anything.[/pl_blockquote]

Archangel has asked for permission to clone the tree from the Seminole County commission. The clones, once propagated, would be donated to Florida elementary schools for planting by students.

UPDATE: The tree has now been collected! Read more about it here.

Archangel is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that can only do this work through donations. Your gift today will help us offset the expense of collecting and propagating this tree. Be a part of the solution.Help Now

Archangel Ancient Tree Archive has cloned hundreds of giant, ancient trees — including hemlocks, redwoods and sequoia — throughout the United States as an effort to “propagate the world’s most important old-growth trees before they are gone.”

[pl_blockquote cite=”Jake Milarch, Archangel Ancient Tree Archive”]”We believe that this tree is something special. Throughout time, it has seen droughts and disease, and over time it has acquired or developed the DNA to withstand those things.”[/pl_blockquote]

Read the entire story and see a news report at Orlando Sentinel.

Image courtesy Joe Burbank / Orlando Sentinel