SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 2021
THE DARTMOUTH COMMENCEMENT ISSUE 2021
PAGE 5
Our leafy neighbors: Dartmouth trees and their stories
B y MANASI SINGH
The Dartmouth Staff
The Lone Pine, formerly known as the Old Pine, embodies many facets of Dartmouth’s history, tradition and mythology. Originally standing in College Park, this pine was a gathering place for seniors in 1828, the location for Class Day in 1854 and is thought to have been a location where Native Americans would gather and sing. Although a lightning strike in 1887 ultimately spelled the end for this legendary pine, trees of all shapes and sizes remain omnipresent in and around Dartmouth’s campus and in College lore. Dartmouth’s arboreal history, primarily rooted in the original Lone Pine, dates back to 1783 when the Old Pine was planted. While the famous white pine was cut down in the late 19th century after its ill-fated run-in with mother nature, the tree was ultimately replaced in 1967. That year, the Class of 1927 planted a new pine near Bema, naming it the “Dartmouth Pine.” Campus arborist Brian Beaty, who looks after nearly 2,000 trees on Dartmouth’s campus, said that the deep, gravel and sand-rich soils in the area are a good growing medium for white and Austrian pine trees — making it easier for the conifers to grow height of Dartmouth’s healthy pines, size is a potential danger to those strolling campus in the wintertime. “Nowadays, in the campus core, there aren’t so many, because [the pines] just get so tall,” Beaty said. “They tend to drop their branches in the wintertime with snow, so people get afraid of them.” Beaty added that today, the largest pine trees are not found on campus, but instead near the Connecticut River, in Pine Park and adjacent to the cemetery. While pines have made their indelible mark on Dartmouth’s history, the oldest tree on campus is not a pine, but an American elm. This statuesque tree — pictured in West House’s seal — sits between the Russell Sage and Fahey dorm buildings and dates back to 1870. The oak trees around the Hanover area also have a storied history, according to Beaty. There are more oaks — predominantly red, English and pin oaks — on campus than any other type of tree. Beaty noted that these hardwoods contribute to much of the famous colorful fall foliage on and around campus. While a majority of the College’s trees are native to the area, some species, such as the flowering crabapple and the yellowwood trees, are not. These trees were planted for ornamental purposes, as is the case on
many other college campuses, but the trees are also integrated among native species. Beaty said that this process allows native trees, such as the white pine, to be most prominent around campus, maintaining a natural, native landscape. Craig Layne, a learning facilitator in the biological sciences department, said that yellowwoods — another of Dartmouth’s well-known trees — were thought to have been planted around
of graduation, so there’s a nice scent in the air,” Layne said. “I suspect that’s why that’s a popular tree around campus.” According to Beaty, Dartmouth’s campus trees haven’t always fared successfully. A 1938 hurricane destroyed many of the older trees in the area. Further, he added, many trees have been lost to Dutch elm disease — a fungus that hit North America especially hard during the 1960s. Biology professor Matt Ayres studies the ecology of the insect species inhabiting the trees around campus. He said the combination of the Dutch Dartmouth’s arborist tends to over 2,000 trees campuswide. elm fungus, European bark beetles and the trees approximately every three famous maple syrup of the area — American mites is responsible for the years. spread of Dutch elm disease. Ayres mentioned that another droughts. According to Ayres, the fungus’s pest — the emerald ash borer, which Further, Beaty said, construction sticky spores make it easier for the entered Detroit from Asia 13 years has created issues for Dartmouth’s pathogen to stick onto bark beetles ago — will likely cause all of the ash campus trees. The College plans that carry mites with them, allowing trees around campus to die in the to heavily renovate many buildings the disease to spread quickly through next few years. Dartmouth’s hemlock and structures around campus over the tree. The mites, Ayres said, have trees, he also noted, are threatened by the next decade, making the task of pouches that allow them to carry these hemlock woolly adelgid insects that protecting trees even more challenging. spores, which the have been killing “We have protection plans for most critters use as a t re e s a c ro s s of the landscape, and most architects “Nowadays, in the glue to attach t h e n a t i o n . are aware of trees when they plan these themselves to the campus core, there Luckily, due to buildings, but it’s really still a hard time inside of the beetle aren’t so many, Hanover’s harsh for us to defend the trees,” Beaty said. wings and travel to winters, the trees The College’s campus trees are neighboring trees. because [the pines] in the area have important not only for aesthetic “Many of the just get so tall. They so far survived reasons, but for the academic careers beetles — half or the infestation, of Dartmouth students. Layne, tend to drop their more — have one according to who teaches the course BIOL 16, or more of these branches in the Ayres. “Ecology” said that as part of the mites that are course, students track the annual cycles riding on them, “ T h e r e ’ s a of trees growing around campus. catching a free so people get afraid of climatic barrier “Every student has a tree on campus ride,” Ayres said. for the adelgids that they have to follow the phenology them.” D u t ch e l m that they haven’t of — in other words, the timing of the disease, which been able to biological events of that tree,” Layne o r i g i n at e d i n cross,” Ayres said. the Himalayan ARBORIST said. “However, The students will then compare re g i o n , c a m e t h e c o l d e s t the data collected with information to America on nights of the from previous years to look for trends wooden pallets and through live winter are warming at an amazing and changes in the tree record. Layne plants. Once it infects its host, the rate.” said that students are able to tell when fungus can cause the tree’s stomata As a consequence, he predicted, to malfunction, leading the tree to most hemlocks will die out within the or a particularly cold spring through become permanently dehydrated. next 20-30 years. their data and compare their results to According to Beaty, Dutch elm Both Beaty and Layne added that other changes in climate in the local disease poses a constant threat to area. campus elms. As such, Beaty and goes into landscaping the campus’s Students primarily follow red others monitor the trees closely and trees, which face constant threats from maple trees around campus due to work to protect them by planting drought, climate change, disease and their prevalence. By studying the genetically engineered trees resistant construction. Beaty said that sugar trees and comparing data over the to fungus and pumping fungicide into maples — the primary source of the years, students are able to keep track
NAINA BHALLA/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
bud to blossom. “The students like having a tree that they soon start to think of as ‘their’ tree,” Layne said. Dartmouth’s trees don’t only provide intellectual fodder for students — they are also home to invertebrate species. Students in BIOL 16 are taught to observe the species present on the trees. Layne said that oak trees play an especially important role for the 250300 species of insects that inhabit them. “A lot of caterpillars make use Ayres added that many other animal species now live in the area due to the trees that were planted on campus. “There are chipmunks, red squirrels, gray squirrels, deer, turkeys, on campus,” Ayres said. “Dozens of not have if it weren’t for the trees as well.” Students, too, appreciate the arboreal diversity present at the College. Earth sciences major Shannon Sartain ’21, who took BIOL 16 during her sophomore spring, said it was “one of the best” courses she has taken at Dartmouth. “My favorite part was observing something up close — in Hanover, all of a sudden, it will be spring and it’s really exciting,” Sartain said. “But to watch the process go from stick season in the winter to the leaves coming out in May was really fun for me.”
