Not long after hearing this, I walked past Public Safety and noticed an entire row of at least a dozen or more of our beautiful Austrian pine trees missing from the path. Only stumps remained of what used to provide protection from the sun, rain, and snow. Analogous to the botched amputation, I thought for sure this must also have been a mistake. Perhaps some overzealous lumberjacks cut them down instead of the much more dilapidated and sad looking ones with brown needles and peeling bark that are closer to the footbridge. The ones that were cut down looked perfectly healthy to me just days before.

As it turns out, however, the trees were cut down due to needle blight, which causes trees to slowly die with each passing year. It begins by causing the needles to fall off, leading to the limbs dying, and ultimately the whole tree. Additionally, small insects were beginning to attack the trees, only worsening the situation.

According to Claude Rounds, vice president for administration, “shortly we will also remove the stumps and condition the soil so that early next spring we can replant the area with flowering trees and shrubs.”

While we’re on the subject of trees, this past Sunday during President Shirley Ann Jackson’s annual Student Leader Clambake, those in attendance had the opportunity to hear about future plans to widen the sidewalk between the ’86 Field and Ricketts Building to add occasional trees that will give the strip a park or Main Street feeling. Neither this idea, nor a timeline for it, are set in stone yet, but it was well received by the students at the clambake. It is certainly something I’m looking forward to seeing come to fruition. I’m glad to see that while we’re adding and renovating buildings around campus, we haven’t forgotten about the outsides of those buildings.

In the end, I guess we’ll have to cope with the less appealing and slightly barren site for the winter. But surely, by spring we will have plenty to look forward to when trees are replanted and the landscaping begins.