BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 3, 2023
The moment of silence was deafening. Aaron Witham stood, hand upon the massive, fallen trunk, head bowed in reverence, leading a small group of mourners in honoring a two-century-old tree on the University of Southern Maine campus last week. A few yards away, powerful earth-moving equipment rattled and shook the ground, clearing land for a new arts building. “This thing was an elder to us all,” Witham, USM’s director of sustainability, said. Tropical Storm Lee seriously damaged the tree earlier in September, then the decision was made to cut the rest down for safety reasons. The loss of the familiar, towering beech standing just outside Luther Bonney Hall has since reverberated through the university community.