Temperate forest edges are underrepresented in studies of ecosystem response to global stressors despite their growing ecological prominence driven by increasing fragmentation and land use change. Tree phenology is an important aspect of ecosystem dynamics that can track responses to global change drivers like increased drought severity. The effects of fragmentation, edge creation, and flash events, like drought, are currently being studied at the Harvard Forest Climate Interactions with Forest Fragmentation (CLIFF) experiment. CLIFF was formed as a new edge from an intact forest patch in 2023, and it encompasses three treatments, precipitation removal, reference, and precipitation addition. We investigated the interactive effects of edge development and precipitation manipulation by asking: How does precipitation manipulation at a forest edge affect crown density and vitality, measured in terms of leaf density and greenness? We approached this question by analyzing repeat digital photograph series of northern red oak (Quercus rubra), red maple (Acer rubrum), and black birch (Betula lenta) using the phenopix image analysis R package. Greenness was calculated through the Green Chromatic Coordinate (GCC), a vegetation index extracted from an area of interest (AOI) based on green light reflected relative to total red, green, blue brightness. We hypothesized that crown density and greenness would decrease more prominently from early season peak in the precipitation removal plots relative to the reference and precipitation addition plots. Our findings suggest some effect of the experimental precipitation manipulation on tree phenological patterns, but also substantial variation across species and among individuals within a species. This study contributes to understanding forest functioning and tree response to stress in temperate edge forests compared to interior forests. Tracking tree and forest responses in edge forest environments is crucial as both extreme weather events and fragmentation increase at an unprecedented rate.