Between school vacation and the news story’s placement on an inside page (below the fold), many Westporters may have missed a very interesting Westport News piece on Wednesday.
Jarret Liotta described Westport’s Tree Board — a 3-person body “hoping to plant the seeds of renewal for its role in town government,” in areas ranging from education and outreach to political action.
Westporters are very protective — but also ambivalent about — our trees.
Trees are on every Westporter’s mind these days. We don’t like them toppling power lines whenever the wind blows. But we also were upset when a number of them suddenly disappeared from Main Street just before Thanksgiving.
Westport’s Tree Board is seeking ways to influence public discussion of trees — and to get the public interested in the board itself.
But perhaps the most interesting info in Jarret’s story was buried near the end: the fact that Westport has only a 1-day-a-week tree warden.
Also of note (though not mentioned in the article): The tree warden lives about 20 miles away.
First Selectman Gordon Joseloff’s proposed 2013-14 budget includes $170,000 “to create a full-time tree warden position and to increase the town’s overall tree work,” Jarret wrote.
But right now — today, as we all love and fear them — there is almost no money for monitoring, removing, planting and pruning trees.
Or for anyone to oversee them.