Cutting Our Losses: FOCUS: THE COST OF THE OCTOBER STORM

May 27, 05:06 PM

Current Headlines: By Patrick Lakamp, The Buffalo News, N.Y.

May 27--Linda Tanyi's grandchildren awoke last October to find the broken branches and fallen limbs of their favorite willow tree after the surprise snowstorm.

Now they're back climbing on and hiding behind the big tree next to Fitzgerald Street -- just as their parents and grandmother did decades ago in the First Ward neighborhood.

But the willow's days are numbered. More than six months after heavy, wet snow thrashed the region, the willow and thousands of other damaged curbside trees face another assault: crews with chain saws.

The first of nearly 4,000 maples, lindens, elms and other trees to be cut down in Buffalo were toppled earlier this month.

Twice that many will fall in Amherst, where the cutting is expected to begin in July.

Already, some 1,500 trees located between the sidewalks and curbs as well as in parks have been cut down in Cheektowaga, Lancaster, Tonawanda and Depew.

In each of these communities, town or city employees fanned out through the storm-ravaged neighborhoods for an initial check of the trees after the storm hit. They then called in arborists to look at the trees that appeared to be in trouble for recommendations on which trees to cut down and which to save.

Their decisions may be heartbreaking.

"There will be a lot of sad kids over here if they cut that tree down," said Tanyi, 57, who remembers gathering around the willow with her friends when she was a teenager.

"This is a fine tree," said 11- year-old Scott Tanyi, as he sat in the big, old tree with two cousins one day last week. "It's fun to climb. It won't hurt anybody."

But the heavy snowfall on leaf-bearing branches and trees weakened thousands of trees. City and town officials are concerned about liability if damaged trees are left standing. Falling branches could damage property and hurt people.

After a month of cutting in Buffalo, only one tree on City Hall's tree-removal list has been spared -- and only because the Olmsted Parks Conservancy agreed to look after it.

In fact, crews have cut trees so fast that City Hall's tree manager on Thursday halted any more cutting until after Memorial Day so contractors can catch up on picking up the piles of branches and trunks.

Some 1,590 curbside trees in the city were cut down as of Thursday, with 165 yet to be picked up.

"The debris has become more of a hazard than the tree [when it was standing]," said Arthur Traver of Wendel Duchscherer Architects & Engineers, the city's urban forestry manager.

Some trees are slated to come down for obvious reasons. The trunk is split. The tree leans dangerously. Large wounds reveal a rotten inner core in the trunk.

But experts decided most trees must come down because more than half of the tree's crown -- the upper part of tree's branches and foliage -- is gone.

Amherst trees

In Amherst, more than half of the crown is gone in 7,635 of the 9,573 trees found to be in poor or critical condition, according to tree inspection data.

That's eight of every 10 damaged trees.

And for most of these trees, crown loss is the sole reason they're slated to be cut down.

Crown loss is easy to understand when about all that's left of a tree is its trunk.

The concept becomes harder to accept for those who believe they now see enough branches and leaves after the broken branches are removed.

In these cases, arborists say, there may not be enough leaves to produce the stored energy the tree will need in a few years to survive. Last fall, trees had stored enough energy by the time the October storm hit -- and that stored energy is helping the trees now. But what's left of the leaves this year may not produce enough energy for the trees to store for next year.

"By the third year, you see a lot more dead trees," Joseph G. Territo, an arborist at Buffalo State College, said of trees that suffered crown loss.

And even if a damaged tree survives, "is it safe and structurally sound?" asked consulting arborist William A. Snyder of Amherst.

He saw the damage in his own Snyder neighborhood, in addition to Forest Lawn, where he tends to the cemetery's trees. He recommended removing hundreds of trees from Forest Lawn.

"I'm in the tree-saving business -- not the tree-removal business," Snyder said. "I've had some very depressing days at Forest Lawn."

Making the tough call

The task hasn't been cheerful for local government officials, either. But most prefer to remove trees now, while they can get federal reimbursement, rather than wait three years, when the window for aid will have been long closed.

They recognize people might be emotionally attached to certain trees. That's why officials in Buffalo and Amherst, among other communities, sought outside arborists to make an assessment of the trees' conditions.

"We needed to prove to the public that we were taking the extra steps, that we're not helter- skelter cutting trees down," said Amherst Highway Superintendent Robert Anderson.

The Town of Tonawanda relied on its own forestry workers to make the calls on which trees to save. They received additional training from Cornell University and state Department of Environmental Conservation tree experts.

"We have a lot of people who have experience," said Bradley A. Rowles, the town's superintendent of highways. "We didn't use a contractor. We took care of it."

Some 27,000 of the town's 31,000 curbside trees suffered some damage from the storm. Crews removed 1,900 of them.

The town, however, did not keep track of the trees' locations with global positioning system units, the way contractors did in Amherst, Buffalo and several other communities. So The News was unable to show the extent of tree damage there as it could throughout North Buffalo, Buffalo's East Side, Snyder, Eggertsville, Cheektowaga and Lancaster.

The Town of Tonawanda cut only trees that lost 60 percent or more of their crowns, while other communities cut down those losing half, or more, of their foliage, Rowles said.

"If a tree is marginal, we'll try to get it back to health," he said. "We know some of these trees we didn't take down could die. But we'd rather err on the side of caution. We realize we may have to come back in six months and remove some trees." Safety vs. sentiment

In Amherst, Anderson said he will accept the recommendations of the tree contractor the county brought in to evaluate the trees.

And if a resident disagrees with a recommendation?

"The bottom line is there is no appeals process," Anderson said. "It's going to come down."

Anderson, however, said, "We will come out and look at that tree."

"Will some mistakes be made? I'm sure there will," he said.

But his department will strive to make the right call on damaged trees, he said.

Residents on Burbank Drive just north of Main Street in Snyder say town officials are looking out for safety. But some are anxious.

Thirty-one silver maples -- all but two with diameters of 2 feet or more -- are on the removal list.

Resident Annette Lyth said she is sad about losing the canopy of foliage that formed a protective ceiling over the street that made her "feel like I'm in a cathedral."

Some trees look like they are coming back, but she said she is not a tree expert.

"I don't want them to die and fall on my house, either," she said.

Tree facts

--In Buffalo, more than 3,900 damaged trees will be cut down this spring and summer.

--In Amherst, the storm damaged nearly 10,000 trees, with Snyder (2,114) and Eggertsville (1,611) showing the most severe damage.

--In the Town of Tonawanda, some 27,000 of 31,000 town trees showed damage from the October storm. The town cut down 1,900.

--In Cheektowaga, 562 trees were damaged and 484 were later cut down. --In Lancaster, roughly 750 trees were damaged, and crews removed 704.

plakamp@buffnews.com

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Buffalo News, N.Y.

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