There is a story about the wooden beams of the hall of New College in Oxford (founded 1379) needing replacement after a few hundred years. No suitable wood was available, until someone remembered that when the hall had originally been built, trees had been planted to provide the wood, should it need replacement. The story is meant to provide and example of great foresight, spanning centuries.
I first heard of this story from Stewart Brand, founder of the Long Now Foundation. Unfortunately, it’s mostly a myth. When the roof of the hall needed replacement in the 1800s, the college owned property that owned suitable oak trees, but the property had only been acquired a long time after the hall had been built, and there had been no plan to use the oaks for to renovate the hall. In fairness, this is acknowledged by Brand and the Long Now Foundation. Additional details are available here, including this quote from the archivist of New College:
In 1859, the [undergraduates] told the [fellows] that the roof in Hall needed repairing, which was true. In 1862, the senior fellow was visiting College estates on ‘progress’, i.e., an annual review of College property, which goes on to this day (performed by the Warden). Visiting forests in Akeley and Great Horwood, Buckinghamshire (forests which the College had owned since 1441), he had the largest oaks cut down and used to make new beams for the ceiling. It is not the case that these oaks were kept for the express purpose of replacing the Hall ceiling […] The oaks, however, are left to grow on and eventually, after 150 years or more, they yield large pieces for major construction work.
This sort of resource management of course makes more sense than reserving trees for specific purposes like replacing the roof a specific building.
Nehaveigur 