History

The Waugh Arboretum covers most of the UMass Amherst campus. Founded in 1944, it was named after the landscape architect pioneer Frank A. Waugh who was the first head of what is now the university’s landscape architecture and regional planning department.

"Frank Waugh got his first teaching job at Oklahoma State University. He went on to teach at the University of Vermont and finally settled down in Amherst, as a professor at Massachusetts Agricultural College. While at Mass Aggie, he became well know for establishing the second landscape gardening department in the country, later the department of landscape architecture." Biographical Sketch of Frank A. Waugh Robert S. Cox Special Collections and University Archives Research Center

The Waugh Arboretum is built on the historic territory of the Nipmuc, Pocumtuc, and Nonotuck Nations.  Following European colonization, the land currently occupied by UMass was mostly cleared and then replanted. UMass Land Acknowledgement

Over the course of more than a century, the landscape that is the Frank A. Waugh Arboretum would transform dramatically. Today, our campus features many rare and historic specimen trees.

In this photo of South College, ca 1910, note the Black Walnut Class Tree of 1894 (far left) and the Japanese Elm Class Tree of 1899 (middle-right) that still stand tall today.

The Japanese Elm tree, shown in this photo, is one of the arboretum's state champion trees. It was brought as either a seed or cutting from Sapporo Agricultural College in Japan in 1890 by Professor William Penn Brooks. It was the first of its species cultivated in America and became the Massachusetts Agricultural College class tree of 1899. The elm is located in the southeast corner of South College opposite the library. The tree height is 65' and 54" in diameter with an 80' spread.

Fun Fact: It takes 7 to 10 years to go from seed to a plantable tree which is 2 inches diameter at breast height.

This champion Pin Oak class tree of 1908 tree removes 2172 pounds of atmospheric carbon per year. It is located south of Munson Hall. Standing at 79' tall, it is magnificent specimen. Its growing site is a good representation of what this species can handle in terms of urban conditions.  Read more in the campus tree storymap.

Mature canopy trees sequester much more carbon than younger plantings. More than 5 generations of students have studied under the shade of their canopies. Ecologically this single tree has supported innumerable species of mammals and insects with its acorns and leaves over a time span difficult to fathom.

Many of the arboretum's mature trees predate 1944.  In this photograph: Class of 1909 hauling class tree, ca. 1909 from the Robert S. Cox Special Collections and University Archives Research Center, Massachusetts Agriculture College (as UMass was then known), students transplanted a Pin Oak tree by horse and trailer. The Pin Oak still stands tall today.  It is located northwest of the Stockbridge House and southeast of Wilder Hall.

The University through generations continue to work to preserve, rather than remove, specimen trees like the Pin Oak. In 2001 the University's Landscape crew saved and transplanted a 52-Year Pin Oak.