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Down goes the Hunnewell school white oak tree

January 11, 2020 by Bob Brown 5 Comments

With its fate sealed at a Wellesley School Committee meeting earlier in the week, the estimated 200-plus-year-old white oak at Hunnewell Elementary School property was chopped down by the Department of Public Works on Saturday. The crew started the job at 7am and expected to be working past noon.

When I arrived a DPW worker in a cherry picker was carving up limbs on the 30-foot-high-ish tree. “We’ve already taken care of the hard part,” said one employee, keeping me behind the cones and tape.

A report commissioned by the Wellesley Natural Resources Commission recently deemed the oak a “high risk tree,” unsafe for its location. The tree’s future had already been in question as a result of plans to re-do the Hunnewell Elementary School itself, but now the tree’s part in that equation is no longer a factor.

While the tree has been used in the past as part of science lessons, perhaps it will now find its way into history classes. Hunnewell Principal Ellen Quirk wrote to the school community the day before the tree went down that “We are hoping that we will be able to save some large cross sections and limbs of the tree, so that they can be milled and crafted into several items that will memorialize and celebrate the life of this majestic tree. Many people have wonderful suggestions for the use of the wood and we will be sure to capture all of the ideas before making final decisions. [Art teacher] Peter Knapp attended the meeting this morning, and is considering some art projects for the students, too.”


Support Swellesley:  I spent about an hour on Saturday morning running out to snap photos, then posting this here and on social media (then swung by Sunday for the “after” photos). If this sort of local journalism is valuable to you, please consider contributing to The Swellesley Report.


Hunnewell school white oak Hunnewell school white oak

Hunnewell school white oak

hunnewell oak tree
Section of trunk that will be preserved for educational use and hopefully an artifact for the new school, according to the town.

 

Here are the “after” photos:

hunnewell white oakhunnewell white oakhunnewell white oak

 

 

The before picture:

Hunnewell White Oak, summer 2018
Hunnewell White Oak, summer 2018
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Filed Under: Environment, Hunnewell Elementary School

Comments

  1. Nathan says

    January 25, 2020 at 1:47 pm

    Completely disgusting.

    Reply
    • Myrna MacDonald says

      January 26, 2020 at 12:18 pm

      I agree it makes me very angry such a beautiful tree which I admired when near the library

      Reply
  2. Jeannine Furrer, Landscape Architect says

    January 12, 2020 at 10:48 am

    Gross

    Reply
  3. Beth says

    January 11, 2020 at 7:52 pm

    We were at the playground today and it was so sad to see it go. The Hawk was flying around checking it all out as well.

    Reply
    • Myrna MacDonald says

      January 12, 2020 at 2:14 pm

      this is not a good representative of our NRC the tree’s demise is a prime representative of what is wrong with unfortunate decisions being made by the “planners ” of this town after seeing all the trees cut down on Great Plain I believe the degreening of our town to allow rebuilding of schools which should have been maintained
      is a sad situation of how the town is run a wealthy town such as Wellesley is in need of better management and not spending tax payers money just because they can

      Reply

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