Storm hit city's pride — its big trees

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In one storm, the city lost as many trees as it planted in two decades.

The city lost more than 2,000 trees in last week’s crippling ice storm, Commissioner of General Services Carl Olsen said. Most of them were tall, healthy trees that had graced the city’s streets for more than 75 years, and the empty expanse they left behind will likely not be filled for many years.

ReTree Schenectady President Betsy Henry said “Frankly, I haven’t figured out a plan to replace all those trees … I would say it would take more than 10 years to replace all those trees.”

The city’s pride and joy — its densely tree-lined streets — were hit hardest. City crews are still working to remove the downed trees and limbs, but talk has already turned to the future. Young trees cost roughly $80, so replacing them all would cost $160,000 — and that’s assuming volunteer labor.

The city does not have the money nor the work force to replace even a quarter of the trees next year, according to officials. It plants roughly 200 trees a year, mostly by partnering with ReTree.

But even if every tree could be replaced in the spring, the city’s streets still wouldn’t recover for more than a generation. The six-foot-tall saplings that will be planted need decades to grow into the mature trees that fell last weekend.

“It’s going to take 40 years to replace what we lost,” said Olsen.

As he heard limbs snap and roots tear free under the weight of the ice on Thursday night, Olsen knew the immediate emergency would be downed lines and blocked roads. But he paused for a moment amid the chaos to mourn for Schenectady’s beloved trees.

“What a loss. I was thinking that when they were falling down,” Olsen said. “Anywhere where we had heavy tree-lined streets, we saw a lot of damage. The pines probably got the worst of it.”

Most of the trees that fell were healthy. Their roots were pulled from the soft ground by the weight of the ice. If the storm had hit a few weeks later, after the ground froze for the winter, meteorologists said far fewer trees would have collapsed.

“Obviously, weaker limbs went first, but very healthy trees were taken out,” Olsen said.

planning plantings

Henry found a silver lining in the loss, noting that ReTree never plants tall tree species under power lines and can now replace towering maples and pines with shorter cherry and Japanese lilac trees. The agency switched to shorter trees eight years ago.

“It does give you a different neighborhood, but if you plant tall trees, you get situations like this,” she said, adding that ReTree’s species grow to 25 or 30 feet — not high enough to take down the highest, and most critical, power lines.

“Our short species wouldn’t cause anywhere near this devastation,” Henry said.

The loss will also allow ReTree to replace maples with a variety of tree species, a policy intended to safeguard the city from ever again losing all of its trees to one infestation. The Dutch elm disease killed virtually all of the trees in the city in the 1930s. They were predominantly replaced with maples until ReTree began planting in 1991.

Henry is also dismayed by the tree loss in Central Park, where many pines toppled.

“In Central Park they’re really a fundamental part of the landscape. They’re green all winter. I was really sorry to see all that damage,” she said.

Trees also fell at the golf course, which has been closed even though golfers usually play until snow covers the fairways. Olsen said he hopes to open the course in early spring.

“There’s extensive tree damage,” he said. “I am pushing to open it as early as we usually do.”

The city’s parks, which were also closed due to tree damage, may open this weekend.

“I’m hoping,” Olsen said.

For now, the city is stacking the fallen trees and limbs in the parking lots at Steinmetz Park and the A-Diamond lot at Central Park. Crews will grind the wood to chips and then pay to dispose of it, Olsen said.

Only a few of the trees hit buildings in the parks. The Fehr Avenue bathhouse roof was damaged, as were several fences. But the new handicap-accessible playground at Central Park weathered the storm intact, even though it is surrounded by trees. The city’s other playgrounds — all well-shaded by trees — also made it through the weekend without a scratch.

“We got lucky,” Olsen said.