Tremont Select Board votes to try and save massive Elm tree at Tremont Consolidated School

Shaun Farrar

Sep 01, 2026

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Thrive Juice Bar & Kitchen.

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TREMONT—It is possible Select Board member Ben Harper’s grandfather planted the elm. The tree is obviously beloved by many members of the community, as evidenced by past protections, and the elm is undoubtedly a grand tree that welcomes passersby to the Tremont Consolidated School side of the Clark Bridge.

But the tree’s fate is uncertain.

At its August 17 meeting, the Tremont Select Board discussed the large elm tree and the fact that it is showing signs of Dutch elm disease.

Town Manager Jesse Dunbar said that a week or so before the meeting, an arborist from Bartlett Tree Service reached out and told him that he had noticed as he was passing by, that the tree “needed treatment, sooner than later, for Dutch elm disease.”

According to the State of Maine, “While some seem to think elms are scarce in Maine due to the Dutch elm disease epidemic several decades ago, elms are fairly common and can still be found growing throughout the state. Wilting, discolored leaves that turn brown and brittle as they dry are typical signs of the disease. Symptoms are generally first seen in the upper portions of the crown advancing downward, usually killing a tree within a few years, but as little as one year if the disease is transferred via root connections from an adjacent infected tree.”

Select Board Chair Jamie Thurlow said, “When they repaired the bridge down there, there was a whole thing about the elm tree and how we had to go around it.”

“Because the tree is a big deal,” said Vice Chair McKenzie Jewett.

Chair Thurlow responded, “The tree is a big deal.”

“It’s a pretty cool tree,” member Kevin Buck responded.

According to a Mount Desert Islander article by Sarah Hinckley on December 22, 2018, when the Clark Bridge was being rebuilt, “the contract for the project stipulated that two natural objects must be preserved, the glacial erratic (boulder) in Marshal Brook and the Siberian elm tree near the bridge.”

That preservation has been a priority.

Member Ben Harper said at the meeting, “I think this sounds like a good program for the kids, as a learning experience. I am quite sure that if you put the word out that this elm tree is going to die, you would have tree huggers coming out of the woodwork and throwing money at ya.”

Harper thought that putting it out to the school and asking if a science teacher and a class might want to take it on as a project would be a good idea. That, he suggested, would be focused not on the treatment of the tree, but just being a part of it as a biology project about trees and diseases, etc.

Harper also asked Dunbar if the arborist indicated that the tree was “on life support” and if he had given Dunbar a timeline regarding the urgency of treatment.

Dunbar replied that the arborist said as soon as possible and that he was talking about starting treatment within the next week or so.

Harper said that he thinks his grandfather may have planted some of the trees at the school and possibly even that tree. Harper said that his grandfather was the principal at the school in Bass Harbor and when they built the Tremont Consolidated School in the 1950s that his grandfather moved to that new school as the principal.

“I can remember him saying, you know when they were doing some of the yard work, he planted some trees. So, I am wondering, cause that would have been what, 70 some odd years ago,” Harper said.

A decision on whether or not to fund the tree treatment was not made at the August 17 meeting but was put on hold until Thurlow could speak with Tremont Consolidated School science teacher Tonya Prentice.

The following Tuesday, August 25, the Tremont Select Board held another meeting. At this meeting, Dunbar said that the treatment window for this tree would probably be closed at the end of the week and that they would not treat it after then because it wouldn’t be as effective.

According to both Dunbar and Thurlow, Prentice told them that trees go into a state of dormancy right about this time of year and the treatment would be much less effective if applied in that state of dormancy.

Dunbar added that as far as he knows, nobody has ever pointed out an issue with the tree until this year and that the treatment’s success rate varies, but sooner is better for success.

According to Thurlow, Prentice said that her science class would incorporate the tree into its lessons during the school year and that they could learn about the history of the tree, diseases that affect elm trees, and also monitor the health of the tree post treatment.

Thurlow added that the tree it is on town property and not school property. The town owns the community center and the land up to about six feet away from the original school building.

“We are responsible for it,” Thurlow said, adding that he thinks they should treat it in an attempt to save it and if it doesn’t work they can at least say that they tried. This will be the town’s attempt to save the tree.

“I think we should do what we can to save the tree. A huge part of town said how important it is. It is quite a tree,” Buck said.

Thurlow made a motion to authorize the expenditure of $1880 from the town’s contingency fund for the treatment of the elm tree. Buck seconded the motion and it passed 3-1 with Harper voting against. Member Eric Eaton had an excused absence for the meeting.

The tree was treated on Thursday, Dunbar said on September 1.

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