The Longshore trees have been granted a temporary reprieve.
But before 2013 is consigned to the compost heap of history, let’s look back on some other Westport trees that are now just a memory.
Judy James maintains a Facebook album called “In Memoriam — Westport Trees.” She writes:
An urban forest provides great value in many different areas, such as increased resale values for residential properties, savings from decreased heating and cooling costs, reduction of air pollution, and control of erosion from storm water runoff. It has been estimated that a tree with a 50-year life span provides nearly $60,000 of benefit over its lifetime.
There’s no indication how many of the trees below were older than 50 years, or diseased or dangerous. But here are 4 photos Judy posted, to show how dramatically the removal of just a couple of trees can change a landscape.
These trees — at the intersection of aptly named Cedar Road and the Post Road — were cut down to make way for the new building replacing the Cedar Brook Cafe.
All it took was the removal of one tree to dramatically change the look of McDonald’s.
Last summer saw the removal of a couple of trees that long stood near People’s Bank, on the corner of the Post Road and North Compo.
Two views of the same spot, on South Compo Road.
How about the trees that must be sacrificed for McMansions? Trees fall faster here than in the Amazon.
Ms. James’ cause is just. But her before-and-after pictures would have more impact if she would shoot them from the same spot. And the last pair of shots is not really a fair comparison; it looks like the aftermath of an Agent Orange strike, but more likely it’s summer and winter.
Will the new tree warden have as much “power” as the historical commission? Yes, that is me being sarcastic.
I’m all for saving the trees, many towns have tree guidelines and restrictions in order to keep developers from clear cutting up to the neighboring property.
But… trees whose root systems have become compromised by being too close to the road, or are at the end of their lifespan, need to be addressed.
A dozen trees along the entrance to Longshore are marked for death.
Slightly off topic:
The interesting thing about the trees along the Longshore entrance is that they are about the only successful example of long-term maintenance planning from the Parks & Recreation Department. Through a series of storms, the entrance to Longshore has not looked the Larry Silver photo for some time. Several years ago the P&R Department had addressed this by planting the 2nd row of trees.
Unfortunately, this kind of maintenance and planning has not applied to the town’s crown jewels – Compo Beach and the Longshore Golf Course – where the strategy seems to be benign neglect (and in certain cases incompetence), followed by an expensive consulting exercise, to be followed by a request for extensive capital improvements. Wash, Rinse, Repeat.
The golfers of Westport spent over $3 million on capital improvements in the last decade or so. These expenditures were funded through increased green and permit fees. At the time, the P&R Department assured the Golf Advisory Committee that they were up to job of maintaining this significant investment. This year, after over a half of century of maintaining the golf course, the Westport P&R Department outsourced the maintenance because of the horrendous condition of the course they are tasked to maintain. Evidently, outsourcing will save the P&R Department hundreds of thousands of dollars a year (!) which I’m assuming means as a “revenue neutral” recreational activity – I am now due a refund (or a new clubhouse).
Everyone loves grand, old trees, until they come down in a storm, blocking traffic, disrupting power lines, and even causing injury, occasionally severe. I give a great deal of credit to the custodians of Longshore for anticipating the senescence of the beloved allee and planning in advance for its replacement by planting the parallel rows of trees which are now ready to take their rightful place in the landscape. The other sites you have depicted should only have been as thoughtfully prepared.
I agree with Steve Doig’s thoughts. The before and after’s would be best shot during the same season if possible, and definitely from the same angle and distance. Maybe next summer, she could give it a another shot (pun intendo) for a “visual re-cap” on this topic?
I do find it startling to see how the removal of even just one or two trees can greatly affect the feeling of a property.
Tree removal is a tricky subject – beauty vs. practicality – big grey area. No wonder it’s such “a paperwork ‘n dollar” process, right?
I live in Trumbull now, and I always hear about Westport’s lengthy power outages after major (AND minor) storms. It was the same case years back, while I was growing up in Westport, after a couple of hurricanes and Nor’easters. Sometimes I scratched my head and thought “is it really because of the tree canopy in this town, or perhaps more about utility company issues?”. I mean, it seems to be a long term, re-occurring issue, no?
I have to say that I’ve been thoroughly impressed with how Trumbull handles this issue – we have a beautiful mature tree landscape, and power outages have been more than reasonable, even after hurricane Sandy (but I am a patient person, so some may not agree with me on that point).
I’d hate to see westport lose too much of it’s beautiful foliage that I observed took decades to mature – but heck, what do I know. I’m not a tree expert – I just like to ponder on my observations, lol.