Save Our Ashes
For two years, Gossips has been talking about the imminent danger posed by the emerald ash borer to city trees. Now the Register-Star is catching up: "Ash borer threatens city trees."
The City should be mounting an aggressive campaign to defend the ash trees in Hudson, most of which are planted along North Front Street, but it doesn't appear that any money for that purpose has been written into the 2016 budget.
COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK
Everyone on our Conservation Advisory Council has been supporting the ash effort since the CAC's founding. I can attest, there've been some great discussions backed up by solid research. (I listen in on meetings as a resident.)
ReplyDeleteSo it's not for want of knowledge - even right within city government - that ash trees, and all trees, are such a low priority.
One of our local politicians who attended the last CAC meeting spoke most authoritatively on what tree ordinances can and cannot do. He was wrong of course, and was gently corrected by the more knowledgeable CAC members. (I admit, I'm less kind when I hear officials bloviating knowingly about things of which they're totally ignorant, especially when it's the natural world which suffers.)
One problem with the CAC is organizational in nature. It could even be argued that our trees may suffer before the issue is clarified, seeing that trees continue to be randomly cut down (or will have to be cut down if we fail to take precautions against the ash borer).
It is that no one seems very certain who in government may request things of the CAC.
Is it just the Common Council President, whose environmental record is infamously abysmal?
Or can any Alderman initiate an inquiry?
It's a shame that the research on ash trees that's been collected by the CAC won't be put to good use as soon as possible, in part due to a lack of clarity about how local government is structured.
Hi Tim, you may be happy to know that the CAC will be acting upon this research quite soon actually. I don't know if you read the Register Star article referenced above, but John Mason does mention that we have already been organizing an informational workshop for the spring on EAB and will be gathering an EAB task force together as well. So while it won't all happen this very second, in about 4 months we should be making some really positive and constructive headway! Points taken on organization though, hopefully we are already in the process of sorting that out.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all of your research into ash trees, Holly.
DeleteI often try to imagine what the eastern forest would look like now with its huge American Chestnut trees of yesteryear restored.
That will surely happen someday, but we won't be here to see it. Working with and for trees requires one to take the long view.
Thank you for taking the short view and the long view!
T
Hi Tim, you may be happy to know that the CAC will be acting upon this research quite soon actually. I don't know if you read the Register Star article referenced above, but John Mason does mention that we have already been organizing an informational workshop for the spring on EAB and will be gathering an EAB task force together as well. So while it won't all happen this very second, in about 4 months we should be making some really positive and constructive headway! Points taken on organization though, hopefully we are already in the process of sorting that out.
ReplyDelete