The Botanic Garden of Smith College, Landscape Update December 16, 2011

List of trees damaged

List of trees removed or to be removed

The storm of October 29th, 2011 was devastating to the campus tree collection. Many trees had to be cut down immediately as they were damaged beyond repair and were hazardous. Others trees ranged from mildly to severely damaged. Each tree was evaluated by our arborists to determine if the damage was significant enough for the tree: 1) to be a continuous hazard (e.g. so unbalanced that future limb or trunk breakage was likely) or 2) to be permanently disfigured so that it would never recover a reasonable form. Decisions to take down some of the injured trees were based on numbers one and two above and on the rarity of the specimen.

Tree removals will be an ongoing process until the 40+ trees that we have deemed a total loss are taken down. The other 300 plus trees that need proper pruning of injured branches are currently being worked on by arborists. This work will continue for a significant period. Plans to replace trees are ongoing; some will be replaced in the spring of 2012