April planting event will increase Brockport's trees

One of the missions of the Brockport Tree Board is to "promote public awareness of the importance of urban forests through education, community plantings and maintenance of new trees." Toward that end, the board received a grant for $7,400 which will pay for the purchase of 38 new trees.

The grant, provided through the Department of Environmental Conservation, is a matching one with the village providing in-kind services for the planting of the new trees.

"We're going to have a planting 'event' on April 27 - Arbor Day - on Spring and Gordon Streets," Tree Board Chairman Margaret Blackman said. The $7,400 grant follows on the heels of the $4,000 grant the board received to inventory all of the trees in the village. "The village has 1,482 trees and their locations and species are in a database."

Blackman says it's important to have an inventory of the trees so village officials know the health and condition of the trees and will know which kind to replace in certain locations if one is lost. "Right now we have 700 vacant tree spaces in the village," she said.

The days are long gone when municipalities would plant a whole street with the same species. "It was nice to drive down a road and drive under arches of maples but without having tree diversity, a disease could wipe out a whole street of trees," she said.

The board is attempting to diversify the tree varieties within the village. "Right now, 77 percent of the trees here are maples, most of them Norways," she said.

The village also takes advantage of the "10,000 Trees and Growing" program offered through National Grid. "If a municipality plants 'approved' trees - those that don't interfere with utility poles and wires - National Grid will give $50 back to the municipality. So far, Brockport has received $400 for having planted approved trees," she said.

Blackman said one of the hopes of the tree board is to make Brockport a village arboretum.

Information on the tree board can be found at treeboard.brockportny.org. Blackman and the board is seeking volunteers to help with the planting. Contact her at mblackma@brockport.edu.

Other tree board members include: Ian Blount, Rick Lair, Josephine Matela, Jackie Morris and John Streb.

February 18, 2007