Soon after news broke that an entire row of trees on Emmet Street had been cut down by the American Transmission Co., neighbors to the south, across Atwood Avenue, offered condolences to those grieving the loss.
“The tree in front of your house is a family member — it shades your home, the birds nest in it, you hang your kids’ swing in it — it is part of your life,” wrote one resident on an east-side neighborhood association listserve. “You may not even know how much of a friend it is until it’s gone.”
But, he added, “The way you see the terrace tree in front of your house or on your block is completely different from the way that city forestry or Madison Gas and Electric or ATC...see it.... The city forester’s main job is not to protect or plant or preserve trees but rather to prevent any tree-related liability. We have to address this disconnect, and our community will be a better place for trees and people.”
Another neighbor reached out in solidarity, asking if any residents of Emmet Street wanted to join an effort on Jenifer Street to save trees there during upcoming roadwork. “If we can work through this issue in a timely way for this street reconstruction project, we can help establish a process, change the city policy and find funding sources to prevent tree canopy loss in future street reconstruction projects.”
There is a growing “save the trees” movement in Madison, sparked by the sting many residents are already feeling at the expected loss of thousands of ash trees due to the invasive emerald ash borer insect. Approximately 12,000 of the city’s 22,000 ash trees will be removed, while 10,000 still in good health will be treated, according to city parks operations manager Charlie Romines. Given the enormity of this loss, new city public works or private projects that doom additional trees cause heightened despair.
“When it comes to infrastructure projects there is a greater focus on the trees because of EAB [emerald ash borer],” says Romines, who oversees the forestry division. “Now any loss of a tree is a much bigger deal than even three years ago.”
The city promises to replace many of the trees lost to disease or public projects. But the so-called canopy trees of old — which can stand 50 to 70 feet tall and provide shade up to the second floor of some homes — will be replaced by much shorter trees if located under high-power voltage lines, forever changing the landscape of older neighborhoods. It will also affect the environment in myriad ways, since trees also help absorb rainwater, create habitat for wildlife, reduce noise and protect from wind.
Saving as much of the lush, green urban canopy as possible has emerged as a priority among residents affected by the Jenifer Street reconstruction project, which will run from Spaight to Few streets. This does not surprise Romines.
“Trees quite often surface as one of the top priorities, particularly when you’re talking about mature trees in established neighborhoods,” he says. “They’re part of the fabric of those neighborhoods.”
The Marquette Neighborhood Association’s relatively new tree committee is working furiously to come up with strategies to save trees targeted on Jenifer Street. The association’s board recently endorsed a proposal to support the partial burying of high-voltage power lines in order to save trees. “We would like our alder and city engineering and forestry to work together to help us resolve the issues that threaten the removal of these trees,” says Gary Tipler, a member of the board.
The tree committee met Monday night at the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center to discuss, among other issues, the cost of such an initiative (it’s not cheap). The news they received earlier that day — that the Madison Board of Public Works was now scheduled Feb. 3 to review city engineering’s proposal for the street reconstruction project — added urgency to their task. They spent the last part of the meeting talking about getting people to write letters to the panel and attend the meeting.
“Okay,” said member Anne Walker. “We’re there.”
Tipler’s first house in Madison was on East Dayton Street. He moved there in 1973, the day after crews had gone through removing trees due to Dutch elm disease. The city replaced many of these trees with ash trees that would grow tall and wide; those located under power lines eventually created a safety hazard. It was a problem the city did not have when power lines were lower voltage. The required pruning around the lines is why many of our older trees have unsightly Y-shaped gaps in the middle.
This has long been a source of irritation for residents, who feel the city and MGE, which also does trimming, do not care much about the trees. That perception spills over into conflicts over whether to remove or try to save ash trees and whether to prioritize the saving of trees during construction or public works projects.
Approximately 40 of the 135 trees in the Jenifer Street project area are slated for removal; some of the ash trees are being removed “preemptively” because of interference with power lines. This is especially troubling to neighborhood residents. “A lot of the trees are being removed as a convenience,” says Tipler.
John Coleman, chair of the Marquette Neighborhood Association tree committee, says the problem is that the city manages its trees from a “forest perspective” and is not concerned about individual trees. “I would prefer to see a more customized approach to try to protect individual trees,” he adds.
Romines does not entirely disagree with Coleman’s critique of city forestry’s role. “As the steward of all the city’s forests, we can’t become emotionally attached to one tree or another,” he says. “But when the tree is out in front of your house, [the attachment] is understandable.”
“None of us want to cut down trees, and none of us asked for this,” adds Romines, referring to emerald ash borer damage. “We’re fortunate we’re in a city providing lots of funding for treatment and lots of money in replanting trees.”
He says the trees being removed preemptively on Jenifer Street already have more than a 30% canopy loss due to power line clearance pruning. “This puts them into poor condition,” he says. Ash trees under power lines will be replanted with trees that, once mature, will not interfere with power lines, he adds. “We’re not going to repeat those mistakes.”
But Anne Walker, a landscaper by profession, says the trees should stay and power lines moved. She says she often gets letters from MGE telling her how careful planting of trees or installing new windows can help save energy. Why shouldn’t the “undergrounding” of power lines, in order to save shade trees that already help curb energy use, be part of this larger conversation on energy conservation, she asks.
Says Walker: “I see that as an extension of the same policy.”
Leslie Schroeder, another member of the tree committee, says it is important to remember that every city tree was planted intentionally. “The human relationship with trees is both simple and complex; they’re our ancestral arboreal home, right? We find joy in their beauty, relief in their shade, comfort in their protection, and yet here we are forced to defend them through a system that only recognizes statistics and financial repercussions.”
