Published March 25, 2011

The Olmsted Elm, at the Frederick Law Olmsted Historic Site, is set to be cut down. (Lisa Tobin/WBUR)

You’ve only got a few more days to bid the famed Olmsted Elm in Brookline goodbye. Years of decay and disease have made the tree, located at the historical home of Boston designer Frederick Law Olmsted, a hazard, according to authorities.

The tree may be 200 years old and its fans are taking its impending loss hard.

WBUR’s Bob Oakes asked Gerry Wright, a local naturalist and sometimes-Olmsted impersonator, what the tree meant to him.

“It’s almost beyond words, because for myself, it’s a spiritual presence that we stand in when we stand within Frederick Law Olmsted’s landscapes,” Wright said.

Olmsted designed Boston’s Emerald Necklace network of parks and, of course, New York’s Central Park. Elms often figured prominently in his designs, so the loss of the one at his family homestead seems to mark the end of an era.

The tree will be cut down next week, the National Park Service said, and mourners have through Wednesday to pay their respects. If you can’t make your way to Brookline, the tree has a Facebook page.