How do we decide when to remove a tree? It’s the hardest part of our job here in the landscape department, deciding when to give up on one of our trees, and schedule its removal. Some of our oldest trees on campus have their life span measured not in years, but in centuries, so removing […]…Continue Reading Tree Hazards and Removals
Tag: Trees
Norway Maple
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about one of the more contentious trees in our urban forest, the Norway maple. Late this fall, while the leaves were still turning, I recently closely inspected over ⅔ of our campus trees, looking for problems, and Norway Maple kept appearing in the problem lists, with similar patterns of […]…Continue Reading Norway Maple
Some Late Fall Color
We’re in the bitter end of fall here, at least in terms of foliage. To me, this is when trees really start to shine. Maybe it’s all the bare trees nearby, or the perpetually cloudy skies, but the remaining foliage seems to take on an extra glow, or maybe urgency. Foliage colors that wouldn’t have […]…Continue Reading Some Late Fall Color
Strange Fruit Falling from the Moon
Every year, people working in Facilities start bringing me these tennis ball sized fruit. Last year, I decided to have some fun, and started freaking people out, acting incredulous they were actually touching them, and insisting they go wash their hands immediately, or terrible things would happen. This year I’m pretending they fell off the […]…Continue Reading Strange Fruit Falling from the Moon
New School Year, New Vandalism
Personally, I was hoping we were done with this. I’m as tired of writing of it as you are of reading. Since the school year started, our landscape department has seen an additional 4 incidents of tree vandalism. One, a newly planted tree was broken in what appeared to be a climbing attempt (no, we’re […]…Continue Reading New School Year, New Vandalism
Leaf Color
I’ve been reading quite a bit this fall in various newspapers, web sites, etc. about the science of leaf change, and I thought, well, heck, there goes another blog post. I don’t see the sense to retread ground others are covering. By now, you’ve probably read that leaf color changes by the shortening of day-length […]…Continue Reading Leaf Color
Tree Planting 2010
Of all the work we do here in the landscape department, some of the best is the tree planting. Think of our landscape at Middlebury as a living organism, changing and evolving. Trees have a lifespan, like us, only measured not in decades but hopefully in centuries, for the best and strongest. Site vagaries not […]…Continue Reading Tree Planting 2010