Julia Zorthian Photo
(Updated with map of the trees) Three on Mechanic Street. Four on Bishop. Seven on Cottage. Three on State Street. Thirteen on Orange.
Christy Hass, the city’s tree warden, unveiled that list of trees slated for removal Wednesday evening at a neighborhood meeting in the East Rock Magnet School auditorium.
Dave Goodson, vegetation manager for United Illuminating (UI), flipped through a slideshow of 35 trees the power company plans to remove. UI plans to cut down the trees — which it says are dying, diseased, or decaying — as part of the conversion process to an updated power circuit in the East Rock neighborhood.
“If [a tree] is on this list, it’s got some serious problems with it, and it needs to come down,” Goodson said.
Check out the trees on the map above. You can click on the red dots to see the species of tree and its address.
About 25 neighbors showed up to hear about UI’s plans, after removal notices appeared on trees around the neighborhood. The meeting occurred in the midst of an ongoing debate concerning UI’s proposal to clear eight feet around all power lines and cut down thousands of street trees in the city.
East Rock Alder Jessica Holmes said at the presentation’s opening that the tree removals associated with the power circuit upgrade comprise a “separate conversation” from the enhanced tree-trimming plan UI proposed earlier this year.
Many power circuits in New Haven neighboring East Rock’s have undergone the same updates, prompting the same procedures for cutting down and pruning branches along the power lines, UI said. The meeting was a chance for the power company and the city to answer neighborhood questions at a time when tensions about trees and power lines have been running high.
Hass said the almost two-hour meeting was intended to connect the 25 attendees with UI employees so they could share as much information as possible while UI is receiving so much publicity in the press.
“I as the tree warden don’t want to be the one standing on the front line getting shot at, getting yelled at, because UI hasn’t communicated what they’re going to do,” Hass said. “This is a give and take so we can all begin to trust each other a little more.”
Fixing The Disconnect
At 80 years old, the Whitney Avenue substation near the Eli Whitney Museum is “vintage,” UI’s Jim Cole said during his presentation. It feeds power to circuit 79‑Y, which is bounded by Livingston Street on the West, Willow Street on the North, State Street on the East and Humphrey Street on the South.
However, since 79‑Y only flows in one direction, Cole said it is not even truly a “circuit.” The 4,000 volt line is in urgent need of an upgrade to 14,000 volt capacity, which would put it at the same power level as neighboring circuits and provide back-up options in case of failure.
Holmes and the two other alders present, East Rock/Downtown’s Abby Roth and East Rock’s Anna Festa, asked questions that they have heard from people in their wards. UI representatives explained that people will see a second, taller utility pole strapped to the outdated power-line poles until the cable and phone companies can transfer their cables as well. UI staff also explained that some condemned trees appear healthy but are dangerously precarious due to invisible root fungi.
Asked when the tree removal and pruning would take place, Cole declined to name an exact date.
“It is this year. I didn’t want to give you a false number,” he said.
“We’re used to that,” said an attendee, prompting laughter from other neighbors.
Goodson also delineated the process for protesting a tree’s removal, starting with contacting the tree warden within 10 days of a notice of removal. Hass, the warden, must then side with either the neighbor or UI. “A great position to be in,” Hass said sarcastically.
If a neighbor disagrees with Hass’ decision, Goodson said, he or she can appeal the decision to the public utility regulatory authority, which would hold a mediation or hearing.
“I understand there’s some passion behind the trees,” Hass said, and she offered to meet informally with anyone to discuss the reasoning she, Ken Bullard of UI and Jeff Basset of Lewis Tree Service used when deciding which 35 will face the axe.
“A Drastic Change”
A Norway Maple at 72 Cottage St., whose leaves and spindly branches mingle with the power lines, appears healthy. But a notice of removal appeared on its trunk on July 8. Jim Farnam, who lives on Cottage, said a neighbor has already filed an appeal.
David Clampitt, who also lives on Cottage, expressed frustration about the tree removal’s impending effect on his three-block street on the whole. He added that of the seven mature trees on his block alone, six sport notices of removal.
“That’s a drastic change on that side,” he added.
Given the high concentration of removals, Hass agreed to reevaluate the length of the street with neighbors who want to survey the trees with her.
“I’m heartened that they’re going to consider the whole picture,” Clampitt said after the meeting. “I think we’ll be able to convince them to save a few of them.”
Farnam wasn’t so sanguine. “I don’t particularly have that feeling.”
During the meeting, Hass said that the Urban Resources Initiative (URI) has a program that residents can use in the wake of the removals. URI Director Colleen Murphy-Dunning said that volunteers will, using tax dollars, replace a felled tree with a new one “if people promise to love it.”
Hass said the process for planting new trees through URI can begin immediately after UI removes the 35 trees from the neighborhood.
After the meeting, Murphy-Dunning said the role of URI in the upgrade of East Rock’s circuit will give the organization practice documenting the status of trees in the face of the proposed widespread removals.
She added that while URI currently has a service on its website mapping the locations and species of all 30,000 trees in New Haven, the group is using the East Rock substation upgrade to add the conditions of trees to their database as UI and the city survey each tree’s health.
“This is a learning experience for us for the much bigger work that is coming,” Murphy-Dunning said.