Norway Spruce dead center is now a Dead Tree Standing
So this majestic fifty-year-old Norway Spruce will fall in order to make way for a more conveniently located driveway that routes traffic onto Railroad Street rather than busy College Street (RT9), although since the other end of Railroad Street is blockaded by owners New England Central Railroad, tenants will still have to enter/exit onto busy Rt 9.
Closed end of Railroad Street
Last night the Amherst Shade Tree Committee voted against the removal (3-1-1) of a healthy tree at 166 College Street, however Amherst Tree Warden Alan Snow overruled the committee and allowed the whacking, but with conditions that a "new tree is planted where the old driveway was located and an inch per inch replacement value for
the loss of the healthy public shade tree."
Current driveway 166 College Street, Amherst
Who would have thought--especially in Amherst--shade trees would be traded like public commodities.
Less than a week after the hearing
I imagine that in 20-30 years, we'd rather have the new tree than the tree that's coming down. Alan Snow is hard-working, knowledgeable, and passionate about his job, and he looks to the long term health of Amherst's trees.
ReplyDeleteUsing that rational we could clear cut the entire town. (But only if it makes a developer happy.)
ReplyDeleteLet's see...
ReplyDeleteUp until the 20th century, the Town was clear cut for farming (and lumber).
Amherst is more heavily forested now than it has been in a couple of hundred years.
Then why bother planting 2,000 trees over the next three years?
ReplyDeleteNot tree-related...but will you be covering tonight's dog show? Hoping so.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work! Love your blog.
Answer to 2:43: To replace street trees
ReplyDeleteStreets trees were in place in Amherst even when the rest of the town was clear cut.
I guess sarcasm requires a special font.
ReplyDeleteAlan Snow loves trees and if he is in favor of something that involves a chain saw, I really am not inclined to ask any questions. I would have taken down ALL the Oaks on Kellogg Avenue a decade ago, starting with the one that nearly took out the Ann Whalen building last October and another that dropped a transformer into the street a few years back.
ReplyDeleteAlan only wants to take down a few of the Kellogg Ave Oaks and that says something about the man.
Mention was also made of an "inch per inch replacement" which I think means that the developer has to plant a lot of little trees to replace one big one -- which in 10 years will be a lot of bigger trees. At the price of one that could get struck tomorrow by lightning and then we would be SOL and then the developer wouldn't have to do anything.
Yes, you can say clear cut the town Larry, but if "inch per inch replacement" means what I think it does, with Alan also opposing what he refers to as "tree prisons" and requiring enough space on both the ground and air for the tree to grow into, the open space requirements for the replacement trees will become quickly burdensome on anyone intent on cutting a large number of trees....
And exactly what right did the railroad ever have to close the road in the first place? It was a grade crossing that had existed for quite some time, possibly ever since the tracks were installed, and that should never have been allowed....