Property owners seek to remove one of Burlington’s largest trees

When Madeleine Murray was house hunting in 2020, one particular feature of the home where she now lives drew her in: The rental listing claimed the property featured the largest tree in Burlington. 

Where Murray saw value, property owners saw liability. After many years of management and mitigation efforts, Murray’s new landlord and the owners of an adjacent home have had enough. They plan to remove the tree in mid-July, though they have yet to work out the finances. 

“I really was aggressive about getting this apartment because of the tree, even though I’d never seen it,” Murray said, noting that she paid more rent than she otherwise would have. “But it’s like a priceless experience, obviously.” 

As a tenant, Murray said she doesn’t feel urgency to cut down the tree, but she recognizes the property owners’ concerns and respects the tough call they’ve had to make. 

“It’s a beautiful tree and it definitely lured me to the neighborhood, to the house specifically,” said Murray’s landlord, Casey Roberson, who lives in the house’s other unit. 

“It’s not fun to cut down a tree,” Roberson said. “I install solar panels for a living and we don’t like to cut down trees to make room for solar panels. But there’s some times whenever it’s necessary and right for the health of the tree.” 

Roberson said he hopes to plant a new tree in its place, or possibly use the space for solar panel installation. 

He and his next-door neighbor, PJ McHenry, spoke with arborists about possible pruning or cabling solutions, but there are clear signs the tree is in decline. When it comes down, property owners don’t want it to be an accident. 

“The tree’s on the last leg of its life,” Roberson said. “It could help, but most likely (cables are) gonna break anyways. It’s just more of an expense that’s really not going to prolong the life of the tree.” 

The end of an era 

The tree is an eastern cottonwood, a species known for growing quite large but not enduring very long. This cottonwood’s best days are behind it, according to the arborists the property owners consulted. 

Because of its soft, rot-prone wood, limbs and branches have already fallen, demolishing a neighbor’s truck, smashing a shed, damaging a fence, and even once landing on a home. Before McHenry moved to the property, lightning struck the tree, inflicting permanent damage. 

“We spent thousands of dollars pruning over the 10 years I’ve been there,” McHenry said. “There’s been ongoing maintenance costs, which is not the reason for any next step, but just the saga of having this wonderful and large tree on the property … the answer that we’ve come to is, there’s no good answer.”  

The risk of future property damage is a big concern — the tree looms high over both homes, as well as the house behind it. 

“Trees do decline and die. They don’t live forever,” said City Arborist VJ Comai, who Roberson connected with upon moving in. “Cottonwood, quite honestly, is a very weak wooded species compared to other species, and not very long-lived.” 

Safety is a major concern as well, McHenry said. Since 2011 when he moved in, the tree has grown over the property line. He has two kids, ages 4 and 2, and he worries about limbs and “human-sized pieces of bark” that regularly drop from the tree. 

“I would say on a weekly basis we are dealing with branches that are bigger than the kids,” McHenry said. “It just starts to creep into your mind.” 

Heidi Corriveau, who moved into the neighborhood at the end of March, has a 1-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old son. Corriveau doesn’t worry for her own children, as the tree is a safe distance from her house, but she recognizes the dangers the tree may pose to those in its direct vicinity. 

“I think safety is the No. 1 thing, especially for kids,” Corriveau said. “I know that kids have been killed by trees falling on them. We lived in Winooski before this and that happened there.” 

Commemoration in memory and art 

Michael Wrobel used to be the property manager of the house Murray rents, and at one time or another lived in both units of the house. He was also the real estate agent who sold the place to Casey Roberson last month. 

“Through the grapevine, I’ve always heard that it is the largest tree in Burlington, the biggest tree in Burlington, and has acquired some sort of accolades over the years, as well,” Wrobel said. “It’s sad to see an icon like that (go).” 

When he lived there, passersby would sometimes comment on the size of the tree when they saw him on the front deck or taking out the trash. 

“I’d be happy to bring them into the backyard and show them the tree and we would just chat about it,” Wrobel said. “It is a seemingly well known tree to the locals.” 

Still, Wrobel sympathizes with the current owners. 

“It’s a neighborhood full of kids and tenants, property owners, vehicles, pets — I mean, it is just so large and amazing that it truly has frankly become scary for some,” he said. “A singular natural disaster of sorts, or weather event, could really affect multiple, multiple properties.” 

Wrobel appreciated the time he had with the tree, as it provided shade for some great conversations and barbecues, and served as a home to many animals. 

“As somebody who sells real estate and land and enjoys the outdoors, I certainly do have attachments to it and our beautiful state that surrounds it,” he said. “It was truly just a spectacle. The girth of that trunk really cannot be understood until you’re standing right next to it.” 

Likely, there’s nothing to salvage from the tree. 

“Unfortunately, the thing that really gets me about this is that the wood is not the most valuable wood that there is,” Murray said. 

It doesn’t make good firewood, nor is particularly valuable as lumber. Even if the lumber value were higher, the size of the trunk and branches would likely deter mills from taking on the task.

So, Murray intends to honor the tree’s life through art, which she hopes to display at an art show in the upcoming months. 

“I’ve been drawing it for like two years while I’ve lived here,” she said. “But now it’s like, renewed urgency.” 

Murray has done a series of sketches of the tree canopy and is working with paint rollers on large pieces of raw canvas fabric, which she places up against the trunk to capture the impression of the bark’s unique topography. 

She has ideas for other projects, which could include capturing the tree’s massive scale by creating a “giant silicone mold” of the bark and then filling it with clay to sculpt a partial replica. 

Murray said she has always loved trees, and is particularly taken by the bark of this tree. 

“Our kitchen window is basically entirely full of just trunk, and it’s just so cool because it feels like it’s one big elephant foot or something,” she said. “It’s just weird to think of it being gone.” 

Initially, Murray planned on being home when the tree came down, documenting the process with photography and video. Now, though, she thinks it would be too hard to watch.

Is it really the biggest? 

While the neighborhood colloquially and anecdotally refers to the eastern cottonwood as Burlington’s largest tree, there isn’t hard evidence to back up that claim — in large part because nobody has accurate measurements for all city trees. 

Some of the biggest trees Comai, the city arborist, is familiar with on city-managed lands are the ash trees in Lakeview Cemetery and oaks in Oakledge Park, he said. 

The largest oak in Oakledge Park has a 52-inch diameter and is 60 feet high, while the largest ash in the cemetery is a 40-inch-wide white ash that towers 70 feet into the air, according to the city’s tree database. 

The Howard Street eastern cottonwood nestled in the Five Sisters neighborhood, in Burlington’s South End, won a city-wide Awesome Tree Competition for widest and tallest in 1997, at 129 feet tall, and won again for widest in 1999, at 76 inches, far surpassing the tallest or widest city-managed trees in the areas Comai mentioned. 

Current estimates are that the tree’s circumference is 30 feet around at the very base and 22 feet at approximately chest-height — the height at which Burlington measures city-managed trees’ width. It is far wider than the trees at Oakledge and Lakeview. 

The tree also towers about 120 feet over the ground, according to recent estimates — about double the height of even the largest trees in city-managed areas Comai had in mind. In 1997, the tree was listed in the Awesome Tree Competition at 129 feet tall, the tallest in the history of the Awesome Tree Competition. 

The competition was hosted by Branch Out Burlington, a volunteer group established in 1996. Margaret Skinner, president of Branch Out Burlington, is a UVM entomologist who works at the UVM tree nursery. She said she plans to inform the rest of Branch Out Burlington about the end of the Howard Street tree’s life, and hopes to do something to honor the tree. 

Skinner herself lives on Howard…