36-38 South East Street (Fort River School behind)
The Amherst Planning Board and Tree Warden Alan Snow will hold a joint "Scenic Roads" hearing tonight to decide the fate of four trees on South East Street, which is of course a "scenic road."
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Three of the four trees are nothing to write home about, but one of them is healthy and scenic and therefor worth saving.
And the rule is if you can't save the tree worth saving then you will most likely have to pay the town a replacement cost of $90 per inch. Which adds up with mature trees. In this case 18 inches or $1,620.
Obviously the canopy and shade created by one mature 18" tree is probably greater than that provided by nine immature 2" trees (which the town will use to replace it).
Back in July, 2013 the Planning Board overruled the Tree Warden and voted to allow the owners of a house on the other end of South East Street, #666, to remove ten trees for a new driveway entrance.
But because Mr. Snow did not back down on the "replacement costs" totaling $6,000 the owners decided not to go the clear cut route and today the trees are still part of the scenic byway.
What is the cost of someone comes in the middle of the night and girdles the tree, it only takes about 30 seconds and can be done with little to no noise? Answer, I think $0, because then the tree cannot be saved after that.
ReplyDeleteIt may be practical for someone to put some higher security on this tree. Since the town is the only real party vested in the tree, perhaps they should set up a camera or something. Or they can just use the camera already in place to catch any tenant/landlord related violations. A second camera may still be practical in case the first one fails or gets shot by a normal person or something.
It should be per inch-squared, since that's the cross-sectional area - it's a progressive tax, making destruction of 1 big/old 18" tree a lot more expensive than 18 little/young 1" trees.
ReplyDelete-The tree-hugger from Vulcan
The owner of the property had no problem with paying the $1,620 replacement fee for the one of four trees that is healthy and would live long and prospered if not for the new driveway.
ReplyDeleteSo no reason to send out the Cowardly Anon Nitwit ninjas to girdle it.
Good idea tree-huger from Vulcan, sounded logical to me.