The Conservation Advisory Council declared 2020 the "Year of the Tree." In 2022, the CAC launched its tree-planting program and adopted the motto "Keep Hudson Shady." In that year, too, the Tree Inventory & Community Forest Management Plan, funded by an Urban Forestry Grant secured by the CAC, was released. Every year, the CAC plants more trees in Hudson, requiring people who request a tree to commit to caring for that tree. But who cares for the trees that have been in place for decades?
Yesterday, Tom D'Onofrio took a walk up Warren Street, from Front Street. He told Gossips he was "shocked to see just how many dead or diseased trees line our main street" and provided these pictures.
COPYRIGHT 2026 CAROLE OSTERINK
Since coming to Hudson I removed quite a lot of blacktop and planted eight trees on two small lots. Removing a part of a concrete sidewalk and replacing with a tree is an easy and low cost way to greatly improve the environment.
ReplyDeleteAs long as the city has a sidewalk plan, it should include a tree planting plan, since many property owners just don't care enough to be bothered with planting. The city could target needy blocks, designate spots for trees and insert them.
Hudson's CAC has been clueless to the state of our trees. I proposed a Adopt-a-Tree proposal two years ago, to save old trees, and it spurned the idea. The CAC is clueless.
ReplyDeleteHudson's Conservation Advisory Council consists of myself and several volunteers. We meet once a month for about an hour. We work on projects such as the NYS Climate Smart Communities, state grants, and we liaise with property owners, DPW and a local nursery to plant about a dozen street trees a year. The owner agrees to maintain them.
ReplyDeleteWe are not full time employees. We do not manage a staff. The CAC does not have the resources to maintain the City's trees. The CAC is not the City of Hudson's Parks Department. Sorry.
If anyone would like to work with Peter and adopt his Adopt-A-Tree program, I wish you the best of luck.
Given all the things that the CAC can't do, according to Mr. Volo, what's the point of having such a council. When I presented my Adopt-a-Tree proposal, the CAC was simply dismissive, just as his comment above suggests. If you don't like the work, paid or not paid, please do something else. We need a CAC that cares about the City's trees.
DeleteA quick reply to Rich's attempt to pass me off to the Parks Department. I don't think Hudson has a Parks Department.
DeleteOur Mayor needs to be concerned about pedestrian safety along Warren St.
ReplyDeleteIs our City or the property owner responsible to remove the dead trees?
Our Mayor should be concerned. But so should the CAC, which I believe is the closest thing the City has to a Committee/Commission. I think the CAC is a child of the Common Council. But I also believe that Tom may be right: that the property own is ultimately responsible to remove dead trees. But I"m sorry to say that such responsibility might also come to mean that property owner can also take down a perfectly healthy tree....
Delete