October 2025 Updates
The results of the neighborhood street tree/sidewalk survey are available below.
Town Supervisor David VanLuven has been responsive to the neighborhood's concerns about street trees. He has indicated that the town will hire a professional arborist to assess the street trees in our neighborhood. The findings will inform the town's plans for the sidewalks here. From preliminary communications, we believe that the town will delay the planned sidewalk project in order to first better understand the impact on the trees, but this is not an official decision.
Summary
The Silver Maples that arch over our roads have been an identifying characteristic of our neighborhood for many decades. Unfortunately, many of them are being cut down due to their age, and in the future many may be cut down or damaged to make way for new sidewalks.
"Street trees" are trees that line a street. In our neighborhood they are within approximately 10 feet of the street. There are two reasons that many of the street trees in our neighborhood are being cut down.
- First, the trees lining the streets in our neighborhood are Silver Maples, which have a lifespan of about 100 years. As the trees reach the ends of their lives and begin to decay, the Town has been removing them for our safety. We've lost many of the trees to age, and the pace seems to be accelerating in recent years.
- Second, the Bethlehem Highway Department has plans to replace existing sidewalks on Euclid and Burhans. To install the new sidewalks, the Town may remove all of the street trees where they're installed on Euclid. Even if the trees are not cut down prior to building new sidewalks, they will be damaged because installing sidewalks would require cutting through their roots.
Regardless of decisions made about our sidewalks, we want to start a neighborhood conversation about keeping our streets looking beautiful with trees.
Sidewalk and street tree survey
Thanks very much to everyone who participated in the street tree survey over the summer. Our neighborhood street tree committee compiled the results into a report that you can download by clicking this link.
Based on the survey responses and written comments, the committee is recommending the following regarding sidewalks and street trees:
- The sidewalks on Euclid and Burhans should be left as-is with minor blacktop repairs.
- If new sidewalks are constructed, every effort should be made to avoid disturbing the street trees.
- The town should selectively cut dangerous limbs from existing street trees and cut down unsafe trees.
- The town should publicize a standard procedure for addressing limbs and trees that residents are concerned about.
- The town should start to plant new street trees to maintain a canopy over neighborhood streets.
We encourage you to download the report to review how the neighborhood responded to the survey and for the reasons behind the above recommendations.
The committee is currently working to communicate the survey results and recommendations to the town, including the Supervisor, Highway Superintendent, Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee, and Street Tree Committee.
Please let us know if you have any questions or would like to help in this effort.
Neighborhood street tree committee
We are a group of residents working to maintain tree-lined streets in our neighborhood. Our members include:
- Maria Bedo-Calhoun
- Dave Hart
- Madeline Hehir
- Francis Sheehan
- Christine Simeone
- Pamela Skripak
- Jeremy Snyder
- Frank Strickler
Our current and planned actions include:
- Interfacing with town officials about sidewalks and street trees in our neighborhood.
- Writing a report on the results of our recent neighborhood sidewalk and street tree survey. We will post results here and communicate them to town officials.
- Encouraging the Town to restart their former street tree planting program.
- Investigating a neighborhood volunteer effort to plant young trees.
Street tree safety
If you are concerned about the safety of a street tree, please contact the Bethlehem Highway Deparment. They will send out a professional arborist to assess the tree. If they determine that there is a safety risk, then the town will remove a limb/branch or the whole tree as needed. The town will offer to plant a replacement street tree.
Actions you can take
Replacing street trees
Town Supervisor David VanLuven has said that whenever the Town cuts down a street tree due to age or for a sidewalk, then the Town will plant a replacement tree. According to Supervisor VanLuven:
These replacement trees will ideally be native species that are better suited to the site [than Silver Maples]. If a landowner doesn't want their tree replaced, then I'm hoping that we can replant it on an immediate neighbor's property or elsewhere in the neighborhood.
To support the Town's commitment to replace the street trees that it cuts, we are working to identify homeowners who are willing to host new street trees on their yard.
Planting new street trees
In anticipation of their being more homeowners willing to host a street tree than there will be trees available under this one-for-one replacement policy, we are taking two additional steps:
- The Town previously had a street tree planting program, under which the Town would plant the tree and split the cost with the homeowner. This resulted in a lower cost to the homeowner than hiring a commercial nursery. Please join us in encouraging the Town to restart this program.
- In case the Town does not restart this program, we are investigating a volunteer program to purchase and plant young tree whips in the neighborhood. A whip is a young tree, typically less than a few years old, that consists of a single slender stem with a small root ball. They are inexpensive and easy to plant, but require fencing to protect them from wildlife while still young.
Benefits of street trees
Street trees provide many benefits because they:
- make our neighborhood more beautiful.
- calm traffic because they make drivers perceive that they should drive more slowly.
- can increase property values
- keep the neighborhood cooler in the summer by providing shade and warmer in the winter by creating a wind break.
- reduce storm runoff.
- sequester carbon, which helps to mitigate climate change.
- provide wildlife habitats.
- provide fertilizer for lawns when the leaves are mulched with a lawn mower in the fall.
- improve air quality.
Contact
If you have any questions, email Madeline Hehir at mmhehir@gmail.com.