Home owners Sal and Sunday Messina of Homosassa Florida had a very large oak in their yard, it had a disease which was attacking the center of the tree. This was making the branches week and therefor dangerous to the house and people walking underneath.

The tree had been part of there family for the 20 years they had lived there, so they were very sad to cut it down. This is when they contacted master carver Gil Watson and together they came up with ideas of what to sculpt in the tree. The main theme being local Florida wildlife. Gil started out by hollowing out the tree and carving an oyster that would be a seat inside the tree so that visitors can sit and get their photo taken in the tree.

Using a chainsaw and grinder Gil began sculpting all the creatures into the tree. This took about 350 hours to complete.

Once all the creatures were sculpted, the tree was treated with different shades of stain and coats of urethane. Sunday Messina chose all the plants and created a wonderful garden around the tree sculpture.

More of Gil Watson’s work can see on his Facebook page