New Canaan’s picturesque back roads are being ravaged by Eversource, aided and abetted by our own Tree Warden.
Some residents on Laurel Road are raising concerns about the extent to which a utility company is removing trees. Credit: Michael Dinan
[Town officials] need to intervene to stop the clear cutting of our trees and protect our property values. Eversource is currently making Laurel Road into a wide-open freeway, instead of the shaded and peaceful lane that it has historically been. Protests to the Tree Warden go unheeded.
New Canaan has long been sought after for its lovely back roads and shady lots. If we allow Eversource to cut down our valuable trees, property values will diminish. While keeping electric lines up and running is nice, there has to be some limit to the process. We do not want our back roads to look like the Merritt Parkway.
Some residents on Laurel Road are raising concerns about the extent to which a utility company is removing trees. Credit: Michael Dinan
In our case we have a 200 year old red oak tree that is 4 ft in diameter and 13’ 6” in circumference. A tree that old understandably has damaged areas and a little rot, but our own arborist has declared it “basically healthy.” The former head of the Land Trust has described this tree as “Atlas on Laurel Road, acting as a guardian for this very scenic drive.” He further notes that the trees cut down to date “look far from diseased based on the cut logs laying about. The cores look very healthy indeed.”
Town government needs to intervene to stop the ravaging of our roads.
Sincerely,
Peter P. Ogilvie
Laurel Road
The cutting of these beautiful mature trees on Laurel, Valley, Ferris Hill and various other roads in town is a travesty and completely unnecessary. The New Canaan Tree Warden has the authority to stop the cuttings on the town land that lines these roads yet he refuses to save these trees. Eversouce’s position on this matter is a simple cost benefit analysis, it is cheaper for them to remove any tree near a power line than incur repair costs should it ever fall. It is our Tree Warden who has to authority to stop these removals and sadly he is unwilling to act. These are not damaged or rotted trees these are mostly perfectly healthy mature shade trees.It is our Tree Warden’s responsibility to act! If you agree please contact him and more importantly our town officials.
Blame your neighbors who drank the Eversource kool aid and signed their work orders. Without their approval Lewis tree could not cut the trees even those in the town right of way. It is your apathetic neighbors who do not care and just sign without reading or questioning.
Kudos should be given to Mike Pastore, and Tiger Mann of Public Works and First Selectman Rob Mallozzi. When I brought to their attention the excessive amount of trees Eversource and Lewis marked to cut on town property they did listen and step forward and halt the cutting. They had Eversource and Lewis attend a meeting at Town Hall to explain their plan. Many trees marked to cut where saved by their efforts. Thanks must be given when well deserved. If more residents spoke up and cared for the trees on their property and properly pruned perhaps no healthy trees would need be cut. After all out of approximately 7,300 days I have lived on Laurel Rd we had two major storms with approximately a total of 25 days without power over twenty years. A small price to pay for the beauty of nature. Portable generators are also not expensive.
Good article. They are taking down too many healthy trees, which might live for another 20+ years without causing any damage but appear to be often ignoring many dying trees that pose a more immediate risk because they are a few feet further from the power lines.
Well said, Roy!
Thx Betty. All the best
I find this news very disturbing.
I grew up at 293 Laurel Road (35 Laurel Road when we first moved there in 1948). I loved the many trees of the back roads of New Canaan (and on the hills of the woods between them). The trees have drawn me back many times to show friends the wonderful town New Canaan is. There’s not a reason in the world Laurel Road or any road in our town should be clear cut like the Merritt Parkway. New Canaan is about trees, not lawns.
As a summer job before I went to college, I worked for a tree surgeon who had a utility line tree-cutting contract. The cutter, in the bucket of a bucket truck at telephone/power line level, cut away branches close to the lines with clippers. They dropped to the ground and I fed them into a wood chipper. It was a simple and quick operation. There was never any need to cut down the trees themselves.
Why any property owner in New Canaan would agree to clear cutting or why the Tree Warden would permit clear cutting is a total mystery to me. A ‘warden’ should be someone who guards and protects trees, not permits their slaughter.
I support the letter below that observed that the cores of almost every tree taken down was healthy. On the other hand, if one looks carefully, there are a number of clearly unhealthy dying trees still standing need the power lines. Thus, the complaint is not only the number of trees taken down, it is that the wrong trees were taken down.