Tree Work A Necessary Evil in Middlefield

You may have noticed a few trees missing from Middlefield's landscape recently.

This month, the town and state cut down several Norway maple trees growing in front of the Middlefield Community Center at 405 Main Street after it was determined that some of the trees were no longer healthy and posed a threat to the public's safety.

"When they get to a certain size, they are falling apart. Structurally, they are not a very good tree," Bruce Villwock, the town's tree warden, said about the particular species of tree.

The trees were about 80 years old, according to Villwock, a state licensed arborist, and although they may have appeared healthy several were damaged during recent storms and at least one was rotted.

Their removal is part of a larger effort by the town, state and Connecticut Light and Power to get rid of or trim trees capable of knocking out power lines during storms like hurricanes Irene and Sandy.

Soon, two trees located on the front lawn of the Levi E. Coe Library will be cut down. The trees, Villwock said, have what's known as a 360 target area. That is to say if the tree were to fall over or if large limbs were to come down they could land on power lines, the library, the sidewalk, parking lot or the road.

"Unfortunately, there are some big trees coming down," Villwock said. "Nobody wants to take any trees down. They're a good thing to have but when it comes to safety and when it becomes a safety issue to roads, powerlines and people, we need to do something."

Connecticut's history plays a role in all of the tree trimming happening around the state. Prior to the late 1800's, the state had been extensively cleared by farmers, the coal industry and for lumber but Connecticut is now nearly 70 percent forested, according to Villwock.

Today, many trees are reaching heights of 80-to-100 feet, leading them to tower over the lower power lines.

"We are a very heavily treed state compared to many states for size and population," he said.

There are plans to replant trees in many of the locations where they are being taken down, including the library and community center. In fact, a handful of sugar maples were planted five years ago at the community center to replace several Norway maples — considered to be an invasive tree because of the way it outperforms the native sugar maple species — that were cut down.

Since 1997, Middlefield has planted about 200 trees, according to Villwock, under a tree-planting program started by resident Dorothy Waller.

"It was all because of her," Villwock said.

The process of removing a tree involves several steps, which includes determining whether or not safety can be improved simply by trimming the tree. However, no more than 25 percent of a tree's green leaf material can be removed in a given year to prevent it from distress, which results in unnatural growth.

"If we can get away with trimming that's great but in many cases after looking at the structure of the tree many warrant removal," Villwock said.

Other factors that may impact a tree's health include the proximity to a roadway where road treatments are used or roots damaged by lawnmowers.

Villwock, who's qualifications include his appointment to the state's Vegetation Management Task Force, created by the state a year ago following the recent storms, understands that some people will be unhappy to see trees removed from areas such as the library but said the importance of safety and growing the "right tree in the right place" outweighs any criticism.

"Nobody likes to take a tree down, especially me. It costs a lot of money. It's too bad they couldn't just stay healthy, stay up and stay out of the way," he said.