Life on the Mount Holyoke College campus has been compared numerous times to life in a “bubble.”This bubble is a place of happy learning that is nothing like the real world.  The environment is landscaped to look natural but is more created than anything else and the college strives to make everything as perfect and pretty as possible.  But the real world paid a visit to the area in 1938 and then again in 1944 in the form of two major hurricanes.  The 1938 hurricane which killed 600 people around the area luckily took no lives at Mount Holyoke.  This storm cost the United States over 308 million dollars.  The 1944 hurricane was less severe causing only 46 deaths and costing the United States only 100 million dollars.  The worst effects of the 1944 hurricane were at sea where the storm caused the sinking of 5 vessels that were all part of the World War Two effort. (15)  These two hurricanes accounted for the loss of over 1200 trees which were killed on the Mount Holyoke College campus during the two storms. (16) To read more about the 1938 hurricane click here.  Some of the trees had only been planted fifty to sixty years earlier in the planning of Goodnow Park on Prospect Hill.  To read more about the forestation of Prospect Hill click here. 

Restoration: The restoration of the trees had begun soon after the 1944 hurricane but was halted when the Second World War hit.  In 1946 the restarting of the restoration project for the trees that were damaged in the two hurricanes took place. Oaks, maples and lindens were going to be planted along College Street and Cockspur Hawthorns were going to be put on the inner quadrangle.  Seventy trees were going to be hopefully planted before two weeks were out.  This restoration project was directed by none other than Arthur Shurcliff of Boston, Massachusetts.  To read more about Shurcliff and his plans click here.  The trees were going to be brought in from the Adams nursery which was located in Westfield. (16)

To read more about other events that were harmful to the trees of the campus click here.

In 1948 the restoration project was still in progress.  During this year 100 new trees had already been planted and 100 more would hopefully be planted before the year was out.  The trees that were being planted were diverse including Sycamores, Sourwoods, Pin and Scarlet Oaks, Pines and Flowering Crabtree’s.  The trees all had a particular place they were supposed to go to add to the beauty of the created “natural” landscape including a large “Christmas Tree” to be planted by Abby Chapel.   The trees were also strategically placed along Route 116 and along the inner campus quad by the library.  The trees along 116 as well as the ones on main campus were put in after the college was founded so again the trees that were killed were young in tree years. (17) To read more about the trees put in during the creation of the campus landscape click here.

Ecological Implications:  Ecologically the trees probably sustained more damage than they would have otherwise because of the fact that they were all put in around the same time and the groves were made up of just a few species.  This would have created more competition between the trees because they were all fighting for just a few types of nutrients so the trees may have been smaller than if it had been a natural forest.  Also because the trees were young they were all little so when one blew over it pushed over the tress around it whereas in a natural forest trees are of varying ages so if the smaller ones fall the older ones still stand allowing for a continuation of the forested land.  Although there may have been enough seeds dropped by the trees for the eventual recovery of the groves around campus, the trees played an integral part in campus life both culturally and ecologically.  So it was off to take two of tree planting for the college in a little over 100 years.  Although the intervention by the college to replant the trees may have aesthetically helped the groves recover, ecologically the natural restoration process was not followed so the new trees will again be more susceptible to damage and destruction.

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