Public Input Sought on Village Tree Plan

Gratifying news & announcement by Village Hall about the work of our Tree Advisory Committee!   Please mark your calendars and come on down to the Village Board workshop on Tuesday, April 15th to hear all about the progress of the Tree Management Plan.

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"Responding to the observable need for an organized, efficient, long-term approach to caring for public trees and tree beds in the Village of Cold Spring, a Tree Advisory Committee was established January 2014 by the Village Board.  With village beautification as their motivating force, ten volunteers from the wider community have been working to compose a Tree Management Plan and a framework for establishing a permanent Tree Board to tend to the needs of village-owned trees. Only village-owned trees will be addressed by this effort, including trees between the curb and the sidewalk and those in public parks. 

All interested village residents or business owners are invited to attend the Village Board’s workshop on Tuesday, April 15 at 8:00 pm in Village Hall to view an illustrated presentation of a preliminary draft of the Tree Management Plan, offer feedback and exchange ideas.  The final draft of the Tree Advisory Committee’s recommendations will be presented to the Board of Trustees later this spring.

The establishment of a structured effort to improve village street trees follows on the heels of the gradual retirement over the last decade of the few volunteer tree stewards who had been valiantly aiding tree bed maintenance on Main Street. A recently renewed groundswell in volunteer interest in village trees saw the completion of a street tree inventory in 2011, the establishment of a Village Tree Nursery in the fall of 2013, and the planting of several dozen new street trees over the last few years. But much work is left to be done on Main Street and beyond, and coordination of these volunteer efforts with village requirements is needed in order to achieve a lovely, shady streetscape with efficient use of limited resources and to ensure such improvements over the long term. 

The overall goals of this effort are to make sure that Cold Spring's public tree stock is kept healthy and attractive through good cultural practices;  to replace dead or dying trees with ones of the appropriate species;  to plant additional trees to increase overall shade coverage;  to improve upon limitations imposed by our local site conditions like overhead wires and narrow tree beds;  and to establish a permanent voluntary Tree Board to make certain that this effort continues in the future.

Armed with appropriate expertise and a cohesive plan, a permanent volunteer Tree Board will help protect the village’s investment in its current tree stock by improving on current care and maintenance practices and by securing much-needed sources of outside funding to supplement limited village budgets for continued tree improvements. The establishment of a Tree Board and adoption of the components of a tree management plan will both achieve efficient use of resources and will open up numerous grant opportunities for the village. 

Anyone interested in getting involved in this work is invited to contact the village clerk at vcsclerk@bestweb.net or (845) 265-3611."