To the Editor:

As a student at then-CMC in the 1960’s, I fell in love with the beauty and charm of the town and campus, both enhanced by the glorious canopy of American Elm trees arching over and shading Church Street. The majestic trees framed the classic homes on both sides of this main town and campus thoroughfare with their summer greenery and glowing fall colors. This was, of course, before the nationwide scourge of the Dutch Elm Disease swept across America, devastating hundreds of thousands of the beloved American Elm with the fatal symptoms and outcomes that could neither be successfully prevented, treated nor cured.

During the following decades, my family and I made yearly trips to Fayette for Homecoming at Central Methodist, and it was deeply sad to see the change in the once beautiful landscape of Church Street. Many of the elms had died and been removed, leaving empty gaps in the former symmetry, and others were in the final stages of the disease, nearly leafless and with limbs twisted and dry. The view of the street without the elms was almost unrecognizable. However, painful as it was, the devastation had been unavoidable. The encroachment of the Dutch Elm Disease was something that could not have been stopped. But no one would ever have chosen to eliminate the tree-lined, traditional charm of  Church Street—not for any reason!

Time passed, and through careful landscaping and replanting of trees resistant to Dutch Elm and other diseases, the newly planted trees began growing tall again! This took many years! Not every effort at replanting and regrowth was successful, but slowly the street regained its former beauty as the trees matured. Today this natural beauty is a joy to residents, students, and visitors alike. More than a whole generation has never seen Church Street without its canopy of trees.

Removing healthy trees should not be justified except in the most extreme emergency---certainly not in a town like Fayette, proudly designated as a “Tree City.” Other, more reasonable solutions, to issues relating to parking surely exist, and the combined efforts of dedicated and involved citizens from town and university will find them! Remember, another generation would go by before replacement trees could even begin to reach the full growth and majesty that these mature trees have today. Fayette’s trees are true treasures, and they are our responsibility to preserve for everyone.

Marian Rusk

CMC Alum

Webster Groves, Missouri and Fayette, Missouri