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EMILY DICKINSON

AMHERST - More than 200 large hemlocks that surround the Emily Dickinson Museum property could be cut down to make way for the installation of a historically accurate hedge.

James Brassord, facilities director at Amherst College, said Friday that the intent of the work at the museum - and along Main and Triangle streets - is to restore a hedge that is appropriate in size and scale for the museum. The work would take place this fall and winter.

"The hemlock hedge is overmature and overgrown and is not a historical representation of how it would have appeared" during the key Emily Dickinson time frame, Brassord said.

Jane Wald, director of the museum, said plans for the hedge fit in with the long-range plan of restoring landscape, but cautioned that no specific plans are in place.

"We're not really ready to undertake any project quite yet," Wald said.

Tree Warden Alan Snow said Amherst College officials have spoken to him about their plans to bring back some of the historical features of the landscape.

"The plan is to remove the hedge in front of the Emily Dickinson Museum and replace it with a new hedge of hemlocks," Snow said.

The museum is made up of the 1813 Homestead, the house in which Emily Dickinson lived and wrote the bulk of her poetry from 1858 to 1865, and the neighboring 1856 Evergreens, built for her brother, Austin Dickinson. While a low hedge once rimmed the property, these hemlocks have since grown into mature trees 20 to 30 feet tall.

Even though the trees provide substantial shade to both Main and Triangle streets, they are all considered to be on Amherst College property and are not under the jurisdiction of the town. The museum advised Snow out of professional courtesy, Brassord said.

When the project moves forward, Snow said the character of the nearby streets will be altered, which is a concern for him because of his appreciation of greenery along the public ways.

"There's no doubt that this will totally change the street we've known," Snow said.

But he notes that many of the hemlocks that will come down are not healthy, and it is a challenge to keep them from being infected by the woolly adelgid, an insect that feeds upon the hemlock.

"If you walk the site, many of the hemlocks are in decline, competing for light and nutrients," Snow said. Snow has suggested the college plant a variety of additional trees behind the hedge to eventually become mature shade trees, something he believes they will be receptive to.

Sight unseen

Town Manager Larry Shaffer said the Emily Dickinson Museum's two homes were built to be seen, but the trees now serve to block this view from the public ways.

"It wouldn't surprise me if they wanted to revert back to an historically accurate profile of the hedges," Shaffer said.

In fact, the Web site for the museum notes that in 2004 the Homestead was restored to its late 19th-century color scheme "to interpret more accurately the house as Emily Dickinson knew it."

Brassord said constituencies with whom the college has spoken have given positive feedback. He notes that the work would open up the views of the Homestead and the entire property, improve sight lines for vehicle traffic and should be safer for pedestrians, especially at night, as dimly lit areas are removed.

Because the proposed work has not yet received much publicity, Hope Crolius, chairwoman of the shade tree committee, said she is unsure what feedback will come from the community.

For her personal view, Crolius said she worries about the impacts on the existing ecosystem, noting that she and her son often go behind the Evergreens to look at woodland wildflowers such as jack-in-the-pulpit, trillium and ladyslipper. "It's a wonderland back there," Crolius said.

Snow said that much of the back of the property will likely remain wooded, even though that is not how it would have looked in the 19th century.

The hedge work comes at a time when the Shade Tree Committee is trying to encourage the planting of more trees along the town's right of way and protect and inventory those that are already there.

An effort to plant 250 commemorative trees for the town's 250th anniversary is under way, and the Shade Tree Committee is seeking volunteers to serve as Amherst Neighborhood Tree Stewards.