PORT ANGELES – The state’s largest madrona tree is ailing, and an attempt to save it will cost $900.

Tree specialists from all over the country are expected to travel to Port Angeles this month to attempt to eradicate two fungi that are threatening the tree at 231 W. Eighth St., in Port Angeles.

The madrona is not only the state’s largest, at 85 feet tall, but also is considered one of the state’s oldest, with an estimated age of 400 years.

It sits on one of Port Angeles’ main thoroughfares, just east of Eighth Street’s intersection with Cherry Street, near a sign proclaiming the small site as Ted’s Tree Park.

The sign was erected in September by Virginia Serr, widow of Ted Serr, who died in 1997.

Serr said her husband had admired the tree for 20 years. He drove past it as he traveled at his dentist office east of the tree from his home west of it.

After his death, his widow bought the 7,000-square-foot commercial lot next to the McClain Crouse and Co. CPA building from Lillian Hoover for $57,000 in July 1999.

Port Angeles arborist James Causton inoculated the tree’s soil with fungi intended to help the tree better absorb moisture and nutrients.

Causton had been trying to draw attention to the tree’s significance since 1990.

In April 2001, the state Department of Natural Resources presented him with a Washington State Arbor Day Award, in part for “preserving the largest madrona tree in Washington.”