Town tree planting scheduled for May 10

by Alice E. Gerard
Grand Island Dispatch, April 18, 2008

On May 10, Island volunteers will have the chance to start the process of turning Grand Island Boulevard into a tree-lined roadway, said Town Councilwoman Mary Cooke at a joint school and town board meeting on Monday, March 31.

“We want to beautify our business district, which is something that our townspeople have been asking us to do for a long time,” Cooke explained, adding that the upcoming planting is the first one to be done off of town property.

Previous plantings have taken place on town property. For the town’s sesquicentennial in 2002, 150 trees were planted. On Nov. 10, 2007, volunteers planted 60 trees in Veterans Park, Town Commons, and in front of the fire hall on Grand Island Boulevard and Baseline Road. “The actual sites of the 19 trees that will be planted are on the right of way on Grand Island Boulevard,” Cooke said.

To plant trees on a right of way, the town must obtain work permits from both Erie County and New York state. Cooke said that the state and county have assured the town that, as long as the town submits its paperwork, the work permits should be ready for a May 10 planting.

The upcoming planting is being done in conjunction with Re-Tree WNY. Tree plantings throughout Western New York are scheduled to begin on Arbor Day, which is April 25, and will continue for several weekends.

Cooke said that the focus of Re-Tree WNY has started to change, from replacing trees that were replaced by the October surprise storm of 2006 to a long-term project of tree planting.

“We’re very grateful for that because, on the Island, we were not affected as heavily (by the storm) as some of the other suburbs. Through Re-Tree, we can get trees at a very good rate. We are also part of the very intense volunteer effort that will probably go on for decades, after everyone here has gone on to do other things,” Cooke said.

One of the initiatives planned by Re-Tree is for “people to take tree inventories of their town so that, if we did have another storm of the magnitude of October 2006, we would know what we lost. Currently, on the Island, we don’t have such a thing. It’s hard to gauge the loss if you don’t know what you have.”

Another idea that has been generated is that of “tree adoption.”

“We have ample trees that need attention. It should be a great ongoing project,” Cooke said, adding that, although a number of the trees that were planted in 2002 did not survive, at least 100 are alive and in need of attention. The 60 young trees that were planted on Nov. 10 also need care.

“The trees that we planted require the posts for at least two winters, maybe three. They require gator bags for at least two summers to make sure that they have established well. All of those things require someone to do it. The whole idea is that it is a volunteer operation, getting community members to take on responsibility. Currently, the Re-tree committee of Grand Island is hoping to get some interested people to adopt some trees. Maybe a family, a garden club, or a Boy Scout troop would be interested in doing this.”

Another source of volunteer help may come from high school students, as part of their school requirements. Cooke mentioned that there is a new community service requirement for seniors who are signed up for a participation in government course. “At the last re-tree meeting, four or five volunteers who are community members were very hopeful that at least some of the seniors in the class will be interested in trees. The committee will be able to tap into that resource,” Cooke said.

Businesses will have the responsibility for maintaining trees that will be planted in front of their establishments on the right of way, Cooke explained. “A team of people could come around a few times a year to help” the property owners with their trees, Cooke added.

The town is looking for volunteers to help plant the trees on May 10. “If you participated in the fall, you’ll definitely get a letter thanking you for your participation. If you didn’t, this is a great time to jump in. There are all sorts of opportunities,” Cooke said.