The Town of Yarmouth, Maine, decided to cut down Herbie.
I wish I were a poet, able to articulate what this tree means, and extend its life through words so that it might be venerated alongside Wordsworth’s Yews and Xerxes’ Plane.
But instead I said NOOOOO!, embarassedly explained what had happened to my publisher and boss, and was told I couldn’t a day off to go see it cut down.
Yes, I know this makes me a huge nerd. Perhaps it reveals some sense of insecurity as I nostalgize about a New England that nurtured and influenced the ideals of the country and Western civilization. But is it not comforting that, despite revolution, civil war, economic disasters, disease, and more, something kept growing?
Herbie has shaded the corner of East Main St. (Rt. 88) and Yankee Drive in Yarmouth, Maine, since approximately 1750. Its 110-foot-high branches, trunk that weighs 10 tons and spreads over 20-feet in circumference, and 120-foot-wide canopy will be cut down January 18, 2010
I first saw Herbie while in college and researching a project for my urban history class on the impact of Dutch Elm Disease on the American landscape. I didn’t even know what an elm looked like, but as I started researching the trees and remembered how often elms appeared in American literature, I became interested. My biology lab professor told me about Herbie and, during Spring Break, I had my parents’ car and went to visit. I couldn’t believe it. To think that New England’s streets used to be lined with trees like that. From then on, I checked on Herbie every chance I could.
Although I didn’t know that I would become a journalist, that story was also, interestingly, the first time I got “scooped.” The Republic of Shade came out that spring. I wasn’t upset, however, I was thrilled – somebody else had shared my idea! And they had gotten Yale University Press to publish a book about it! Maybe I did have something worthy to say.
For more information on Herbie, please visit here.
