Timber…..

The buzz of chain saws ripped through the rain as campus services personnel tended to a huge wounded maple tree by Alumni Hall Tuesday.

The tree had sustained damage from recent high winds.

Lester Lawson, a supervisor with Facilities Planning and Management, said the soft maple tree lost a large branch last week.

“The wind blew it out,” Lawson said. “It was on old tree. It had hard rot.”

Saturday afternoon’s high winds finished off the large maple tree.

“On Saturday the whole top portion blew out of it during the wind storm and that left one big branch out to the side,” Lawson said.

He said the damage made the tree a “hazard” and it had to come down before somebody got hurt.

Facilities Planning and Management officials will remove the rest of the tree that is above ground.

Yellow caution tape was hung around the area by workers to keep students away from the equipment used for cutting down the tree.

By Tuesday afternoon, the yellow tape had been removed and the hollow portion of the tree was visible where the tree had been cut. It was dark and rotted inside.

The tree stood for decades behind Beadshear Hall, yielding shade in the summer and bright autumn leaves.

Facilities Planning and Management workers used a cherry picker to transport a tree surgeon of sorts to the top of the mangled tree to begin cutting away the branches.

The chain saws echoed through campus for much of the day. Several students walked by the area, pausing to take in the demise of the giant tree.

Some students followed the chain-saw sound, seeking out its source.

MD Kerns, a graduate student in psychology, said the tree looked rotten to the core.

“It looks like it was diseased,” Kerns said.

“It probably would have fallen down anyway. It was rotting from the center outward,” he said.

Adam Dickinson, a junior in electrical engineering and music, curiously inspected the tree Tuesday afternoon.

“I think we should get some marshmallows and graham crackers and have a big campus bonfire,” he said.

“It looks like something ate it.”