In her early years at Wellesley, Professor Emerita of Physics Judy Brown lived in the Orchard Apartments, two apartments formerly attached to the Dower building. She trained her puppy under the flowering cherry trees on the lot.
“I’ve loved seeing them during their brief two-week period of blossoming every year,” Brown said.
The cherry trees were two of 74 trees recently cut down as part of the modular dorms construction project on Dower lot.
“The loss is very painful, plus the incredulity that this could happen so blindly and callously,” Brown said.
The felled trees, some of which were around a century old, encompass species from the Japanese Zelkova to the White Pine, Kousa dogwood and Hally Jolivette flowering cherry. The project also removed the 1989 class tree, a Fraser fir.
“As an Arborist, and being charged with overseeing the campus grounds, it is always hard to see any tree removed, but especially old established trees that we have lived with for years,” said John Olmsted, manager of landscaping and motor pool operations.
Assistant Vice President of Facilities Management & Planning Dan Roderick said the tree removal was necessary to make way for the five-building residence hall swing space complex planned for the site. The final landscape design includes 62 new trees on the site, as well as the replacement of the 1989 class tree in a similar location.
“It was initially very much of a shock to go by and see the crude stumps that were littering the Dower lot,” said Maple Bottinelli ’26. “There was no email sent out. There was no communication to students whatsoever.”
Bottinelli acknowledged the need for housing, but said she would have liked to see more communication from the College and opportunities for student input and involvement.
“[The College] wants us to feel really connected to our campus and our built environment, and yet we’re literally being walled out of it,” said Bottinelli.
Last semester, the College announced that it would disband the Paulson Initiative, which focused on environmental justice, conservation, and research grounded in place.
Professor of Art Barbara Lynn-Davis, who has been involved with ecological initiatives on campus, pointed out the contrast in values between College initiatives like Paulson and the decision to cut the trees down. Lynn-Davis said communication was important, but advocated for a shift in campus values to center nature.
“Frankly, if you’re going to do something so abhorrent, I’m not sure telling people is really the point,” said Lynn-Davis, “I’d really like to see the campus thinking about ourselves as a web of life.”
Contact the editors responsible for this article: Dylan Burmeister, Jessica Chen and Galeta Sandercock
