Over the past few weeks the Grounds team has been working to safely remove several dead trees from campus. This has generated many inquiries from the community! The two most visible trees are the Norway Maples along Willamette Blvd. Both of these trees had developed some rot and fungal disease common at the end of life, and they were dead or near dead, which is why you may have noticed they had no canopy this past summer.
We estimate these Norway Maples were 115-120 years old, which is a full life cycle. The estimated life span of a Norway Maple in North America is 80-100 years. If you walk the halls of the Physical Plant, you will see photos from when these trees were just saplings in 1914. Dead trees become larger safety hazards as we move into winter season, which is why the Grounds team is currently prioritizing this removal work.
As most of the Norway Maples along Willamette were planted in the same era, it is likely we will have to replace more of these trees in the coming years. There are various reasons for tree removal on campus. Please know the decision is never made lightly, and we ALWAYS work in conjunction with the City of Portland. The work is planned, permitted, and we always replant. Sometimes we may replant in the same location, sometimes we may replant elsewhere on campus. The University’s canopy is ever evolving, and sometimes tree removal is a necessary element of our stewardship. Please feel free to reach out to the Physical Plant with any further questions, physicalplant@up.edu.