Take a long look -- or better yet, some photographs -- the next time you drive along North Main Street in Stonington, one of the most scenic and quintessentially New England roadways in southeastern Connecticut.
Do the same thing if you travel on the Merritt Parkway, a picturesque alternative to the ghastly urbanscape along Interstate-95 in western Connecticut.
That’s because many of the magnificent trees that line these elegant thoroughfares may be soon be coming down.
Some of these specimens are more than 3 feet across and have stood since the days when horse-drawn buggies bounced along dirt carriage roads. All, unfortunately, are showing signs of rot and could pose safety hazards, which is why crews are poised with chain saws, waiting to start their engines.
In Stonington’s case, they won’t get a green light until after a public forum the first week of December at the Stonington Community Center, when town officials will listen to the opinions of residents.
"There’s a lot of concern because this is the gateway to Stonington from the highway," Haberek told Day reporter Joe Wojtas. "We want to be able to balance the safety issues with the aesthetic issue."
As many as 25 trees, mostly maples, may have to be felled along the 1.3-mile stretch between Pequot Trail and Route 1. These trees form a canopy and imbue the road with its signature, quaint coziness. It’s hard to imagine what North Main Street would look like, particularly in resplendent autumn, with the trees gone.
Two trees that must be cut down immediately have been marked with large orange "X"s. The others have orange circles near their base.
Once signs are posted on the trees, anyone objecting to their removal has five days to send a letter to the town.
As for the Merritt Parkway, which is equally celebrated for its 69 bridges modeled after European spans, hundreds of trees are destined for removal -- unless the owner of the Empire State Building gets his way.
Peter Malkin of Greenwich, chairman of the investment group that owns New York City’s tallest building, says a $66.5 million federal stimulus project to make safety improvements and upgrade 13 bridges in Fairfield and Trumbull threaten the parkway’s character. The plan also calls for removing 300 trees in Stratford.
DOT spokesman Kevin Nursick says the state has been working hard to balance aesthetics with safety. A final resolution is still pending.
Though I would hate to see the trees cut down I understand the reasoning.
In the woods behind my house an enormous dead oak lies on the ground, gradually decaying into soil. I remember when it was standing, though mostly rotten, only a decade or so ago. One day I went for a walk and there it was, smashed into the earth. I never heard it fall. The odds are distinctly against such an event, but a person -- me, for instance -- could easily have been strolling by at that moment.
So I now cut down trees on my property that are dead or dying. I also cut down trees for firewood -- mostly black and silver birch, which grow like weeds, and the occasional dogwood or hickory that grow too close to one another to spread their limbs.
I avoid felling old, native oaks, which have seen so much history; maples, which I tap in late winter to make syrup and beeches, which I prize for their enduring beauty.
In the spring I plant seedlings, hoping to restore some balance.
Will an 18-inch seedling fully replace a 60-foot tree? Probably not in my lifetime, but trees live a lot longer so eventually it can achieve greatness.
Every so often I visit the Ledyard Oak on the property of the Nathan Lester Home on Vinegar Hill Road. Once the largest white oak in Connecticut, it was estimated to be 400 years old when gypsy moths killed it in 1969.
I first visited the Ledyard Oak in the early 1970s, when it still measured 21 feet in circumference and 80 feet tall. Workers had strung cables to hold up the dead limbs, but eventually the cables were removed and the branches were cut down.
Today all that is left is a rotting stump, covered in poison ivy. The last time I visited a giant black snake had wrapped itself among the tendrils.
Last April, on Earth Day, volunteers planted an oak seedling a few feet away. Decomposing wood from the Ledyard Oak stump will help nourish the new tree.
With luck it will come of age at about the same time as replacements for any trees cut along North Main Street in Stonington, or along the Merritt Parkway in Stratford.