Saving the trees: Class of ’59 works to preserve special place they didn’t have

By Nancy Wick
University Week

This Saturday at 12:30 p.m. the UW class of 1959 is sponsoring a ceremonial planting of a cherry tree in the Arts and Sciences Quad. The tree is the first in what the class hopes will eventually be a total replacement of the aging trees.

Dixie Porter looks through one of the cherry trees on the Arts and Sciences Quadrangle. Photo By Mary Levin

“We’re trying to raise enough money to replace the trees one at a time as they reach the end of their natural lives,” said Dixie Porter, a member of the ’59 class who has been coordinating the effort, together with co-chairs Lex and Diane Gamble.

Yoshino cherry trees like those in the Quad have a life-span of 60 to 100 years; these particular trees are estimated to be 50 to 60 years old and a number of them show damage such as fungal growth in the trunks or cracks. Some have already died. The fund that the class of ’59 has started will provide for purchasing trees and maintaining them elsewhere until they are planted in the Quad.

Porter said it will work like this: A few mature trees will be purchased to replace trees that are currently dead or dying. Then, younger trees will be bought and planted in a plot near the Center for Urban Horticulture. These trees will be cared for until such time as they are needed for the Quad. The total cost - including the purchase price and the maintenance costs - is $3,000 per tree. There are 30 trees in the Quad.

Ironically, the class of ’59 is supporting the renewal of a resource they didn’t have while they were students. “I had all these fond memories of the cherry trees in springtime during my student days,” Porter said. “Then I found out they weren’t even here then. That area was a parade ground for ROTC.”

The trees were planted in the Quad in 1964 after they were “evicted” from the Arboretum during construction of the approach to the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge. But Porter, whose husband once taught in the business school and who has had children attend the UW, can be forgiven for having false memories about the trees.

“I think it’s the emotion that’s connected to them,” she said. “Everyone loves those trees and likes to think they’ve been there forever. I know I can’t imagine the Quad without them.”

The class of ’59’s project began at their 40th reunion last fall, Porter said. A group of them were discussing the idea of a class gift, and Porter suggested they might give a tree. Then, since she is a board member of the Alumni Association, Porter mentioned the idea to former director David Fagerlie last spring.

“He said we might want to consider doing something about the cherry trees,” Porter recalled. She then began meeting with Alumni Association project coordinator Angelica Macklin, and a few weeks ago they sent out a letter and brochure to her colleagues in the class of ’59. That, together with a brief mention in Columns, the alumni magazine, was enough to bring in $13,000.

Although the drive is officially a project of the class of ’59, donations are welcome from anyone who feels moved, Porter said. A Web site on the project can be found at http://www.washington.edu/alumni/cherrytrees.html. To donate, make your check payable to “UW Foundation” and send to, Class of ’59 Cherry Tree Project, c/o Dixie Porter, 1415 NE 45th St., Seattle, WA 98105.