Students walking past Poe Hall through the Court of North Carolina may notice something missing.  The tree trunk of a Willow Oak that laid there for almost a month was taken out earlier this week.  It was one of the for trees critically damaged in a storm that hit campus and Pullen Park July 17.

Jeffrey Kisch, the local manager of Bartlett Tree Experts and ISA board certified master arborist, described the storm as “a major down-burst of 65 mile-per hour winds that blew through many large trees.”

Kisch said the winds caused many trees to lose branches, in some cases splitting in half.

Pullen Park was also hit, Kisch said, though he said there was no tree damage at his home in North Raleigh.

Kisch said his company, Bartlett, was called as an emergency response to all the mess. He said it was placed in charge of removing two water oaks, one linden and one willow oak tree due to the heavy damages.

“It was done in probably three to four days,” he said. “It was basically just down and dirty tree removal.”

Sarah Elsaesser, second-year masters student in landscape architecture, remembered her husband calling her on his way home to tell her about the storm.

“I was going to drive to campus and get a picture of the downed tree, but I remember hearing a tornado warning on 88.1,” she said.  “The sky was really dark over there, so I decided to turn around.”

Elsaesser said the cleanup started two days later.

“The day after the next, they were already picking up the pieces,” Elsaesser said. “That tree was probably as old as the school. It was a huge, iconic tree.”

Elsaesser remembered one tree distinctly.

“I remember standing underneath and learning the scientific name of the american basswood in my plant identification class,” she said. “Nowadays we walk by where it was when we get food. It’s just a reminder of what used to be there.”

Bartlett tried to be conservative in the removals according to Kisch.

“We tried not to make decisions while people were still emotional about the damages,”  he said. “We tried to slow it down and come up with a solid plan.”

Kisch said some people wanted to cut down the chancellor’s tree, but he wanted to wait.

“We thought it would be better to look at its response and see how bad off it really was,” he said. “We wanted to make sound, scientific decisions,” he said. “It wasn’t as bad off as it looked from the ground, so we did some remedial pruning.”

Barry Duncil, a second-year student in landscape architecture and certified arborist, said this is a good opportunity for expanding the species around campus.

“They should try to coordinate with the Hillsborough Street project and prepare and area for tress to thrive,” Ducill said. “Right now, there’s a huge disconnect between the campus side and across the street.”

Elsaesser said she thought it would be nice to commemorate the vasswood tree.

“It would be nice if there was a ceremonial replanting around there,” she said. “Maybe they could put up a plaque or something.”