My Turn: Speaking for the trees The Buttonball Tree in Sunderland on North Main Street dwarfs other full grown trees around it. Staff Photo/Paul Franz Published: 4/14/2021 4:40:09 PM Trees have been in the news a lot recently. It looks like a crisis was averted in Sunderland when citizens came to the rescue of the beloved 400-year-old Buttonball Tree. It appears news of his death was greatly exaggerated. But tree huggers, like me, want to be sure the historic creature, which has been a witness to human history, is forever protected and preserved. You can learn a lot about us humans from looking at a tree. Our mutual existence is intertwined.