Cicadas Blamed for Mercer Oak Ailment; Tree Will Undergo Treatment for Damage

Matthew Hersh

The young tree in the Princeton Battlefield Park that supplanted the original Mercer Oak will begin undergoing treatment this morning for damage experienced during the recent onslaught of cicadas.

Minor damage to trees is evident throughout Princeton. Innumerable branch tips and leaf clusters have browned and fallen to the ground, turning Princeton into a vision of autumn.

While largely credited as a natural pruning process for older trees, cicadas, in mass quantities, can inflict significant damage on younger trees. Entomologists and arborists alike warned residents to cover young trees to avoid extensive damage.

One significant casualty is the young tree in Princeton Battlefield that represents the original Mercer Oak.

Causing alarm among residents who had hoped that this tree would endure 300 years like its predecessor, the New Jersey Forestry Service finally stepped in to seek a fulltime caretaker who can nurse the tree back to good health.

"It's been severely damaged by the cicadas," said Kathy Smith of Woodwinds, an arborist firm that has been contracted by the state to assist the tree. That firm, along with the firm Silva Guard, will begin injecting organic fertilizer in the oak and pruning it in an effort to get it back to good health.

The fertilizer, Ms. Smith said, is essential because since a majority of the leaves are gone, the tree cannot gather its nutrients though natural photosynthetic means.

The two companies will begin working on the tree this morning with a ceremony at 8:30 a.m. There, Jim Wiles, a former superintendent of the state parks service and part-time Woodwinds employee and his son, Jim Jr., a fulltime woodwinds associate, will begin the nursing process.

The new tree is a direct descendent of the original Mercer Oak, where Gen. Hugh Mercer was mortally wounded while fighting the 1777 pivotal battle, the Revolutionary War's Battle of Princeton.

The original Mercer Oak, which is the emblem of Princeton Township, survived adversity including storms, sicknesses, and even a miscreant's firebomb, but ultimately could not battle off gusty March winds that destroyed it in 2000.