By Debra Bradley Ruder

Gazette Staff

The crocuses are up and the magnolias are about to bloom, but Harvard officials are still assessing the impact of last week's snowstorm, which snapped branches and toppled trees around the University.

"In my 27 years here, this was the most damage done by any storm, be it hurricane or blizzard," said Bernard Keohan, manager of landscape services for the Facilities Maintenance Department. "It was a frustrating storm to fight."

About 30 trees were lost on the Cambridge side of campus, 10 of them around the River Houses, Keohan said. Fortunately, the newest trees in Harvard Yard were almost unscathed.

Hardest hit was the Arnold Arboretum, where at least 1,000 trees in the 17,000-plant collection were killed or damaged, some of them more than 100 years old.

"The conifer collection took a real beating," said Peter Del Tredici, director of living collections at the Jamaica Plain site. "The oaks and beeches and horn-beams growing in the central portion of the Arboretum were also badly hit. It looks like at least 300 trees are total losses."

Around the University, crews have been working all week to clean up after the storm, which dumped two feet of heavy, wet snow on the Boston area Monday and Tuesday.

"In general, tree branches are designed to take four times their weight," Del Tredici explained. "When the loads from snow or wind exceed that limit, they break."

The storm took its toll on staff members' morale, he observed. Last week, they were in a state of shock; this week, they have buried themselves in the clean-up work. The next step will be to think about replanting.

"The staff cares very deeply about this place," he said. "To have all that effort smashed is very depressing."

But, he added, the 265-acre Arboretum -- which serves as an international plant research center and a lovely picnic spot, too -- is still open and beautiful. "It isn't as though the Arboretum was flattened; the damage seems to be concentrated in three or four different areas."

In Harvard Yard, the blizzard claimed a magnolia near Weld Hall and two hawthorns by Widener Library, as well as hunks of the canopy trees. One dogwood flanking the Lehman Hall/Dudley House staircase succumbed, but a 40-foot cedar planted outside the building days earlier remained intact.

At the Business School, approximately 30 of the campus' 800-plus trees suffered serious damage, and another 70 needed storm-related pruning, according to Assistant Director of Facilities Management John Moody. The damage was mostly to the smaller trees.

Moody is confident the beautifully landscaped campus will be back in shape well before Commencement and reunion time.