Global Warming Comes to Maplewood: City Cuts Down Specimen Trees to Make Way for Sidewalks

    MAPLEWOOD, NJ, June 10, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The last good tree on Lexington Avenue in Maplewood, New Jersey is gone now. The city has performed the inexorable job of chain sawing it to death. When I remember looking up into its bare limbs, reaching for the sky some 100 feet in the air, with only a healthy top knot of bright green leaves, still holding birds who sang bravely into the sunset, on its last day of life, I just can't help but think, this healthy tree did not deserve this.

But once again, people have chosen concrete over a tree and the next door neighbor, Mitra Joseph, 39, will have a new sidewalk but no lovely Pin Oak tree. I wonder if that sidewalk will actually make the asking price for his house go up, as he intended. He just lost an asset of incalculable value that can never be reclaimed. Mr. Joseph has already bought a house near Orlando and hopes to sell his New Jersey house promptly.

Mr. Joseph was quoted as believing his house would fetch $375,000. However, a brief review of houses in his neighborhood shows one just a couple blocks away going for $185,000. Mr. Joseph hopes to sell his house with out the assistance of a realtor. Taxes are reported at $7100. and for buyers, the lower price will be a boon.

Suzanne Roganchi, Maplewood Realtor, states, "A specimen tree adds immensely to the value of a home for sale. People are buying a dream, and a house with a big, lovely tree is much more appealing than a house sitting on a bare lot. The effect on the curb appeal is huge. I would have advised them against removal of this tree."

One mature, healthy tree, such as this pin oak is a marvel of ecology. It gives us oxygen, shade, beauty. It helps keep the underground streams which lace this area going where they're supposed to go. As many as 500 living organisms probably called this tree home.

But there will be no home for the birds, insects, and microorganisms on Lexington anymore. The city has killed this gentle giant at the request of the homeowners.

Why? The homeowner, Mitra Joseph, hired a concrete contractor who told him that if he tore up the old concrete to replace the sidewalk--which had been put in only 10 years ago--he would probably cut into the roots of the tree and kill it so it would be best to take the tree out first.

The concrete guy was moonlighting from his day job with the Department of Public Works with the City of Maplewood and reassured the home owners they were doing the right thing to remove the tree. He called in his boss, Maplewood City Arborist Todd Lamm, who delivered the coup de gras for the tree, stating that it was a "hazard", rotten and hollow in the middle at the base. The tree's fate was sealed.

What? Are these people crazy? You don't have to be a member of the Sierra Club to know that a mighty oak tree is more valuable than 4 feet of straight concrete sidewalk.

Everyone I have spoken with, and trust me when I tell you, I called Mayor Victor DeLuca, I called the green councilman, Fred Profeta, I called the tree guy, Todd Lamm, I called an independent arborist who works for SavATree, they all came and made an inspection and they all said the same thing. The new sidewalk destabilizes the tree and now it must come down.

What? Are they all crazy? What kind of misguided public policy is this that favors a four foot strip of concrete over a huge, noble tree. A tree that was probably here before any house on this street. The last big tree left here.

Even the internal revenue has a line in the 1040 form to give homeowners a casualty loss deduction for the loss of a specimen tree on their property. If the IRS values a tree, why don't city fathers and certain homeowners? It just blows my mind.

And with the exception of Todd Lamm, who seemed to dig in his heels when crossed, every official, who came to make a physical examination of the tree, agreed this was a healthy beautiful tree with years of life in it yet.

Why did they yield to Todd? That is a question I cannot answer. But I believe Todd Lamm made a grave mistake in ordering the destruction of this noble tree.

Monika Hannemann, arborist for SavATree says they offer a simple service for about $150. Called root pruning, which can be done on any sidewalk that is rising from tree roots, it doesn't harm the tree. It doesn't harm the sidewalk. It accomplishes the city's requirement for a straight sidewalk without killing a tree. When Mz. Hannemann examined the pin oak tree at 108 Lexington Avenue, she believed root pruning would have solved the problem, been economical and much less destructive to the neighborhood.

But then there was Todd Lamm's other argument to me that the large tree had a canker on the base on the street side. Well yes, it did. It and literally hundreds of other mature trees in the city of Maplewood. As I told Todd Lamm, if he cuts down mature trees in Maplewood simply because they have a canker at the base, he will practically denude the streetscape of Maplewood. We may have to change the name of the town to Deadwood if this public policy continues.

I believe the procedure for ordering a city tree to be removed in Maplewood, New Jersey, must be changed. Todd Lamm, or any other single person in the city administration should not have the authority to remove a tree without the approval of a committee that includes citizens and perhaps an outside arborist.

I also believe that city workers should be banned from moonlighting within the city limits because the appearance of impropriety is enormous when the boss, the City Arborist, concurs with his underling's decision to remove a tree. The cost to the home owner is in the thousands to replace concrete that could often be remedied by a simple root pruning wherein the sidewalk settles back down, the tree stays in place, and the aesthetic value to the neighborhood is retained for a whopping cosf of about $150.

Whether or not actual corruption occurs, this action bears a stark resemblance to a three card monte where the hapless home owner foots the bill, and is poorer for the result in ways to numerous to count.

Oh, we'll bring you another tree, the Department of Public Works reassures me. Yeah, I say. Some miserable little tree no bigger than a big toothpick. And what good will that do me?

I am poorer with the loss of this tree. It was on the west side of my house. It shaded my house every summer afternoon. It housed birds who sang to me morning and night. It wicked up gallons of water from its deep taproot to keep those leaves green and the air oxygenated and cooler. Now what will happen?

Basements may flood. Electric bills will rise. Tempers will flare as well as all come to grips with the fact that this is no neighborhood. Nobody on this street but me gave a damn about this tree. All they want is straight concrete.

The tree is still dead and nothing can bring it back. But perhaps a change in public policy to prevent other noble trees from being murdered might be a start. I watched that tree go down, healthy limb full of bright green leaves, all the way down to the trunk which was, by the way, perfectly healthy, no "hollow" center, no rot.

The only rot I can see is in city hall. And this goes on all over the country as mighty trees fall in towns large and small in the name of progress.

There is a larger message here. All politics is local, and citizens, like me, have to get involved in the running and supervision of their city officials. I have volunteered to sit on a committee examining every tree slated for destruction. Citizens who believe in the green world, who believe we can save the planet and that global warming is real, must make themselves heard in their communities. I have thrown my hat in the ring. I urge citizens everywhere to do the same.

The planet cannot afford such ignorance and arrogance. They say you can't fight city hall. But by god, you can try.

We need to get our priorities straight here. Trees yes. Concrete no. Ignorance? We can't afford it. The planet is at stake, and it started for me on Lexington Avenue, in Maplewood, NJ.

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