The effects of the winter storm on the firgrove and what’s to come
By Violet Bouwes-van Nood ‘24
Fallen trees in the firgrove; Image sent out in an all school email slideshow
On Friday, Jan. 12, 2024, Catlin Gabel School (CGS) was closed due to inclement weather conditions. By the time the snowstorm was over around one-third of the trees on campus were gone. CGS is known for its forest-like campus, and it's missing trees create a visible difference.
The facilities team had known about the storm a week in advance and used that time to prepare. They had to be on campus for the duration of the storm, which proved to be very important when trees started falling on Saturday.
“We had to decide, with some arborist’s help, to take down the trees,”
Kitty Firth, head of facilities at CGS, said. She explained that the trees were swaying, not just their trunks, but their roots as well.
The snow allowed Mike and Jason on the grounds teams to see cracks in the snow from where the roots had been “heaving in the ground”. This helped them know which trees to take down, and those trees were marked with ribbon for when the snow melted. Removing the trees was necessary, as they could fall in the current storm or the future, and possibly land on buildings or other facilities.
Dealing with the effects of the storm has been continuous, even now, months later. Other projects have been put on hold to prioritize fixing the damages from the storm. Firth described the whole project as having a four step action plan.
First, was making it safe for the return campus, the next step was making it accessible. The third action has been repairing buildings behind the scenes. Finally, over spring break, moving debris to make the firgrove accessible to the Lower School. (Larger logs can’t yet be moved, as large equipment is needed and the ground is still too wet.)
“We are meeting in April and May to discuss what’s the vision,”
Firth said, as the damage has changed a lot about the school. The Firgrove will remain a firgrove, but there will be a discussion about more of the general Beginning and Lower School area, which includes the front of the lower school and fields next to it.
A question on many people’s minds is what is happening with all the wood? There seems to be no clear answer.
“We know it’s going to be a bunch of different things,” Firth said. “There has been communication with our alums in the lumbers industry. Some wood will be inspected by these professionals, saved, and dried.”
Some of the said wood will be used on campus and some will be sent out to mills. However, since none of the logs are very large (in terms of lumber) and transportation is expensive, there will be no money made from logs.
Wood will also be given to teachers, artists, and community members who want it. Some will be used for play structures, and the rest will be used for bark chips around the school.
However none of these uses are necessarily set in stone, and a survey will be sent out about what to do. It was unclear to who in the school this survey will be sent to.
The effects of the winter storm have created lasting effects for the CGS community.
When asked about how the facilities team has been dealing, Firth said “you know, sometimes you gotta roll with nature.”
The facilities team will be working hard into the summer to make sure they will be caught up for the start of the 2024-2025 school year.