Elm Felled

The Parkhurst Elm is gone. Planted about 1870, the towering tree had been considered a survivor of the ravages of Dutch elm disease until the Town of Hanover’s urban forester, William Desch, determined in August that further rescue efforts were futile. College officials did not want the tree taken down, but Desch deemed the decay a safety hazard. “We do not like to cut trees,” he says, “but it would be a terrible tragedy” if a large branch weakened by decay were to fall on pedestrians. For three days starting August 21 a team of tree surgeons took down the longstanding sentinel of the Green. Passersby viewed the dismantling, and some picked up chips and chunks of the wood to save as keepsakes or carve into something useful. The elm, which rose nearly 90 feet and measured 42 inches around the trunk, was reduced to 40 tons of wood that were trucked away. As two new elms were planted on either side of the stump site in September, Desch expressed concern that the elm fronting Collis could be the next to go.

The scene in front of Parkhurst on August 23.