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[Mike_L]

Hello - Anytime very old trees are needlessly removed it saddens me. I just got this email from a young friend of ours who is a local over in Burdett - very close to the FLNF. Just thought any folks who live over that way would like to know.
-m

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Thursday evening:

"Some tree cutters are in Burdett and a bunch
of trees on our block are on the list to be cut (either pruned or cut
down). The village never bothered to inform us beforehand and we only
found out through some sleuthwork of one of my neighbors. We know
that they are intending to cut down at least 3 completely. We have
about 10 very large old maples on our side of the street alone and
they've threatened to cut them before, just like they have in most of
the rest of Burdett already. They say that the area between the
sidewalk and the street is no place for trees. There have already
been some heated encounters with the tree cutters, village board
members and the mayor and a bunch of us are keeping watch, really not
trusting them at all. So far they've avoided our street, putting it
off for as long as they can since there are a few of us who care
immensely for these trees and have not made their job (the tree
cutters) very easy. "

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_________________
Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

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[Mike_L]

In the 1890s a civic effort in Trumansburg planted 100s of sugar maple trees in the 'tree lawn' between the street and sidewalk throughout the village. Money was raised to plant the trees, but not to maintain them.

In the intervening decades automobiles were introduced and became common, the streets of Trumansburg were paved, and, in some places, the tree lawns were paved too. The sides of the streets were dug up and trenched repeatedly to put in utilities and then again to repair them. Sometime in the 1950s it became a regular practice to salt the roads through the winter.

All of this is hard on trees. It is especially hard on sugar maples, which are relatively shallow rooted. Without maintenance and with accumulated stresses, the maples of Trumansburg began to die, losing large limbs and getting heart rot.

During this past year the village had a consultant evaluate the trees. Out some 200 remaining trees, 113 of them had serious health problems. The survey was prompted by the collapse of a large maple on Lake Street, a road heavily traveled on foot by children on their way to and from school.

I interviewed the tree consultant for the newspaper and he was impressed by how long the maples had lasted. He said that sugar maples hate salt, hate to have their roots covered or cut and don't do well with car exhaust and soil pollution by hydrocarbons. In sum, they are not good candidates for street tree duty.

The village is now negotiating with NYSEG, Time/Warner Cable and the Trumansburg Telephone Company to removed the dying trees and replace them with species that are more able to withstand the stresses associated with living next to a regularly-travelled road/street. The utilies are willing because it costs them a lot to repair the damage done by falling trees and limbs.

Trees, like people, have a natural lifespan. Trees that grow up in sub-optimal circumstances, like people who grow up in challenging environments, don't live as long as they might do in better circumstances. Trumansburg's maples are ~115-120 years old, which is not old for a sugar maple in a better setting, but not young either. As street trees, they are only expected to last a century http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/environment/trees_lifespan.html.

Maples, in particular, are experiencing a regional decline according to Cornell Cooperative Extension http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/yates/6533.htm. Even out in rural settings, away from streets, maples are not doing so well.

As for the village's 'failure to inform', I would consult the minutes of the village board meetings or just call up the trustees or the mayor and find out when they talked about this. Since it costs money to take down trees, they must have talked about it at a public meeting. As a newspaper reporter who attends such meetings regularly, I can tell you that I rarely have any company in the audience. Proactive participation in local government by residents will prevent 'surprises' like this.

All best,
Bill

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Bill Chaisson
Deirdre Cunningham
McLallen House Bed & Breakfast
30 McLallen Street
Trumansburg, New York 14886
607-387-3892
http://www.mclallenhouse.com

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_________________
Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

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