| Author | Message | ||
     joel dranove Citizen Username: Jdranove Post Number: 922 Registered: 1-2006 |
In the last two weeks several large trees have been destroyed on Scotland Rd., between Irving and Turrell. Does anyone have an explanation? If it is a disease or infestation, please let us know, so we can monitor our own properties. jd | ||
| Dave Supporter Username: Dave  Post Number: 10558 Registered: 4-1997  |
[topic moved] | ||
| wnb Citizen Username: Wnb Post Number: 526 Registered: 8-2001 |
Probably infestation. We lost a couple on Tichenor recently. Lost three big ashes in my front yard since moving here in '99, all due to infestation. If you look at the stump (if the stump is still there) and you see the telltale holes you'll know it got infested. Not even sure what can be done to prevent it! | ||
| SOrising Citizen Username: Sorising Post Number: 707 Registered: 2-2006 |
Does the village trim trees and treat them for parasites and other kinds of insects? Does it feed them regularly and take care of the medium strips between sidewalks and streets? How many trees become infested; how many are coming down on Scotland Road? If trees the town is supposed to care for become infested, couldn't it spread to homeowners' trees, shifting the burden, expense and responsibility for healthy trees and the inconvenience of having to deal with them from the town to homeowners if the town neglects trees on public property? | ||
| wnb Citizen Username: Wnb Post Number: 532 Registered: 8-2001 |
My understanding is that such infestation has been widespread and not possible to effectively control for at least several years now. The insects obviously don't make any distinction between public and privately owned trees, and I think the only effective program would have to be comprehensive enough to cover all trees in the "forest." PS I'm no expert on this in any way, shape, or form! | ||
| Kibbegirl Citizen Username: Kibbegirl Post Number: 732 Registered: 5-2003 |
I saw the trucks on Scotland during the tree removals and the company had a B'klyn or Queens phone number. I also saw the same trucks parked in an area off of S.O. Avenue going towards Livingston. Why weren't local tree companies used to cut the trees? Was this company so much cheaper and had to be outsourced? Just asking. | ||
| dgm Citizen Username: Dgm Post Number: 311 Registered: 5-2001 |
Have you ever hit a tree by the roadside? Infested or not, they are very hard! | ||
| wnb Citizen Username: Wnb Post Number: 537 Registered: 8-2001 |
Well there's a bidding process and the low bidder wins. BTW unless the DPW is doing the work, the job is "outsourced," even if that company was more local than this one. Outsourcing just means contracting with a company to do a job rather than having your in-house workers (in this case, the DPW) do it. You could ask why doesn't the DPW do this kind of work. Maybe if the DPW did it there would be a comprehensive program to keep the trees healthy. | ||
| joel dranove Citizen Username: Jdranove Post Number: 935 Registered: 1-2006 |
The town should notify homeowners what to look out for, on which trees. jd | ||
| SOrising Citizen Username: Sorising Post Number: 710 Registered: 2-2006 |
I know it is possible to treat trees for insects and other kinds of infestations. Have had to do it for trees on my property. I also know that trees on our street are dying. Low bid or not, it appears, like micropaving, the town is not doing an adequate job at caring for mature trees, a characteristic asset of the town. | ||
| wnb Citizen Username: Wnb Post Number: 539 Registered: 8-2001 |
It's all about funding speculative pet projects at the expense of basic maintenance capabilities. | ||
| SO1969 Citizen Username: Bklyn1969 Post Number: 365 Registered: 7-2004 |
Looking for someone more knowledgeable than I to opine on the appropriateness of the new trees that the village is (and apparently for at least a few years has been) planting as replacements. Around us they are cherry trees. They offer colorful blooms in the spring, but they are short and not very well shaped in my view. Not what I picture lining a street of a "leafy" suburb. Thoughts? | ||
| SOrising Citizen Username: Sorising Post Number: 718 Registered: 2-2006 |
Small trees could hardly provide an umbrella canopy to streets in town, SO1969. I guess its the horticultural and design equivalent of micropaving instead of real repaving, the quick and cheap solution, providing a pretext that something was done, no matter how inadequate. A town with short flowering trees instead of streets lined with large shade trees is far less attractive and would change the character of South Orange the more it spreads. | ||
| Foj Citizen Username: Foger Post Number: 1749 Registered: 9-2004 |
wnb, without looking at my old notes, Ashes are weak wooded, branches break off, etc. AS a former NJ & NY certified Pesticide applicator, I dont recall ever spraying an ash. Joel, do you know what kind of trees were cut down? What does the bark look like? Were the tree roots messing up a curb? | ||
| SO1969 Citizen Username: Bklyn1969 Post Number: 366 Registered: 7-2004 |
SOrising - and any others - short flowering trees is what the village/township is using, precluding the canopy effect that is desirable and that - as near as I can tell - was the norm in South Orange in the not too distant past. Once again, had our founding mothers and fathers been as short-sighted as the current crew, our town would look like the Vauxhall section of Springfield Avenue and not as it does. The trees and the micropaving are the sorts of things that should be subjects of discussion and debate in local government. We've had so many bigger, more obvious problems - the blight of our town center most obviously but also highly unorthodox and inappropriate business dealings related to redevelopment, the TS sculpture, SOPAC and its cost overruns, real estate give aways to corrupt non-profits - that I fear our eyes aren't on these more mundane matters. Wake up South Orange!!! Instead of taking the incredible opportunity that Midtown Direct created to rejuvenate South Orange, your BOT is taking the high taxes you're paying, spending or borrowing against them for the wrong things and not spending them on the right things. IT'S PAST TIME FOR A CHANGE. KNOWLEDGEABLE TREE PEOPLE - please let us know if there are trees we could be using that are hardy, canopy producing, and have root systems that are compatible with sidewalks and streets nearby. | ||
| joel dranove Citizen Username: Jdranove Post Number: 961 Registered: 1-2006 |
They were cut down before I could take inventory. I suppose John Gross can answer the question. I will ask him. jd | ||
| SOrising Citizen Username: Sorising Post Number: 725 Registered: 2-2006 |
Unless the entire stump and roots are out already, Joel, you might be able to tell something from the bark, any twigs with leaves that might be left as debris. Foj might be able to help ID them; maybe Foj could look also? I'd be interested in knowing what kind they are, whether native or not, among other things. | ||
| joel dranove Citizen Username: Jdranove Post Number: 962 Registered: 1-2006 |
I saw the surrounding trees this evening, and they have limbs recently cut off. Each is the same type tree, looks like a giant fern, as in many thin, opposed leafs on a twig. I lost my freshman bio course book on how to identify a tree. jd | ||
| Foj Citizen Username: Foger Post Number: 1750 Registered: 9-2004 |
I took 2yrs of Woody Perrenials @ RU. Joel.. "looks like a giant fern, as in many thin, opposed leafs on a twig." Excellent description, sounds like... an ASH or a Locust. Ashes are weak wooded (branches break off easy) and a poor choice. Is the bark dark ... grey.. rough, not smooth... ? Any flowers or fruit? The London Plane tree is hardy, suited to the street enviroment, doesnt need lots of water. The bark is mottled, kind of like an Army camo uniform. The old bark tends to peel off in irregular rounded blotches, leaving fresh bark.. sort of cream colored. As the bark ages, it gets more olive green color. The London Plane tree is very popular and has been planted all over the North East going back 100 yrs. Something like: http://www.oplin.org/tree/fact%20pages/ash_blue/ash_blue.html or http://www.oplin.org/tree/fact%20pages/honeylocust/honeylocust.html Those short flowering trees..... the one with white flowers are Bradford Pears, pink flowers are of course Cherry. They are nice in mass at the Mall in Washington DC, or Branchbrook Park, but they are not shade trees. Towns that plant them in mass on streets, condemn folks to walking the sidewalk in bright hot summer sun. Folks dont congregrate, talk to each other. That neighborhood feel is gone when you plant trees like that. | ||
| Glock 17 Citizen Username: Glock17 Post Number: 1846 Registered: 7-2005  |
When we moved here in '90 we had a seemingly healthy cherry tree in our front yard. Now its sickly and branches are being cut off it frequently. I think its a combination of fungus and infestation . I have a feeling it'll be removed before we move. | ||
| Elizabeth Citizen Username: Momof4peepers Post Number: 179 Registered: 12-2005 |
The other problem with fruit trees is that they don't live very long. I believe I recall that the cherry trees in Washington DC are on a replacement cycle. They're not the original trees from Japan. | ||
| Foj Citizen Username: Foger Post Number: 1762 Registered: 9-2004 |
Cherrys go into decline after 90 to 100 yrs. | ||
| toad Citizen Username: Toad Post Number: 151 Registered: 6-2001 |
SO1969 - Katsuras and Zelkovas | ||
| SOrising Citizen Username: Sorising Post Number: 727 Registered: 2-2006 |
They plant a lot of gingkos in Manhattan because they are suppose to be pollution tolerant, among other things. But they are infamous for stinking fruit that breaks all over the sidewalk. Is it pointless to plant American Elms? Their shape is so beautiful. The stand in Central Park is one of my favorite places. I know many were lost to Dutch Elm disease, but would that necessarily mean new ones would be? Does anyone know? | ||
| SOrising Citizen Username: Sorising Post Number: 728 Registered: 2-2006 |
What about European Lindens or Chesnut? They flower but get larger. | ||
| Nuff Sayid Citizen Username: Parkingsux Post Number: 488 Registered: 6-2005  |
South Orange at one time was called Chestnut Hills in the early 1800s. I have no idea who in the world decided to replace shade tree for the road side with the much smaller flowering trees. Who makes these decisions? Is there ever some public input to the decision making process, or is it simply a numbers game they play....? | ||
| SOrising Citizen Username: Sorising Post Number: 731 Registered: 2-2006 |
And many old houses in SO have Chesnut trim throughout. Mature Chesnuts are beautiful. There are several on the village green in downtown New Haven that, in full bloom, are gorgeous. Aren't American Chesnuts also endangered; if so, shouldn't they be replanted? There could be a town committee about town landscaping, but if the BOT and administration ignored it, there would be little reason to spend volunteer time on it. Another reason to get new trustees next spring. The flower baskets that used to hang from lampposts on SO Ave also disappeared. When the BOT was asked about it in one of the last meetings, no one said anything. You had the feeling a thief in the night took them, the BOT knew who it was, but wouldn't say. Maybe it was one of their cost-saving plans so they could subsidize Beifus. | ||
| mtierney Citizen Username: Mtierney Post Number: 956 Registered: 3-2001 |
One reason to select shorter growing trees, perhaps, is to avoid the butchering that occurs when PS&G prunes them to clear electric lines! The company has no concern over appearance - they just hack holes throught the branches. At least I believe this is an issue in Maplewood where our electric line poles are in front of houses. | ||
| joel dranove Citizen Username: Jdranove Post Number: 970 Registered: 1-2006 |
Looks like Ash, but, it was dark and I didn't get a good look at his face. jd | ||
| Foj Citizen Username: Foger Post Number: 1767 Registered: 9-2004 |
Zelkovas are noted for their "V" shaped growth habit. Lindens are bigger and have a great round shape. American elms are not really being replanted, the London Plane tree has replaced them as the "city tree". But the American Elms are being cross bred with.. IIRC.. an Oriental cousin. Now, on to the Ginko. I forget if its the male or female, but one fruits, the other doesnt. Somebody planted the Fruiting kind next to the Maplewood Library, years back. Joel... if its an ASH, it might not really be a big loss. Having a branch break off and fall on your car might have been an option. | ||
| jayjay Citizen Username: Jayjayp Post Number: 761 Registered: 6-2005 |
Our trees are part of what make the character of this town. Unfortunately a lot of trees were lost over the past couple of years due to stress from lack of water during the hot summer months, or so I am told by the guys from Maplewood Tree. What I find distressing though is that as with other things in this village, there seems to be no overall plan for replenishing the trees with the benefit of professional input. It seems its more like stick a tree here, another there, when the mood strikes. I have noticed that the dogwoods in the park seems to have the disease that afflicts many dogwoods. Probably a matter of time before they die off. Village Hall seems bent on turning a "village" into a concrete jungle. Its obvious in the type, size and scale of stuff they allow to be built downtown, and its evident in their lack of attention to a plan for our parks and streets which preserves the greenery for future generations. | ||
| Shanabana Citizen Username: Shanabana Post Number: 1034 Registered: 10-2005  |
SOrising, The American chestnuts, once a plenty, were nearly all wiped out in a blight. Could be that they're still vulnerable. | ||
| SOrising Citizen Username: Sorising Post Number: 732 Registered: 2-2006 |
I think the American Chesnut may still be vulnerable, as are American Elms. But they still exist when cared for. Losing mature trees during a drought and others because they aren't treated (dogwoods in parks) is inexcusable. Maybe a new BOT would subcontract with professional arborists to care for them. It isn't that expensive for individual yards; a city-wide contract would probably get significant discounts and be very cost-effective. Like historic architecture, the leafiness of South Orange is a great part of its appeal. Why are there no large trees on SO Avenue downtown? It looks like some were planted on Sloan Street, a side street to the main street through town, what happened with SO Ave? |
