September 01, 2017
Towering Oak Topples
One of the oldest and largest trees on campus came down in a storm the night of May 17, sending its resident family of squirrels scrambling to find a new home.
Professor of Biology Yaffa Grossman says the heritage bur oak tree that had stood to the northeast of Pearsons Hall measured 39 inches in diameter.
Grossman says that would make the tree approximately 250 years old, according to the tree size/age table developed by Marlin Bowles of the Morton Arboretum. Many other area trees were damaged in the storm, but the campus lost only this one, plus a limb from a shagbark hickory near the World Affairs Center.
The college kept the wood from the bur oak for a future use, while Grossman is considering planting a pollinator garden with her botany class in the spot where the oak tree once stood.
