normanside neighborhood street trees

Let's keep our neighborhood beautiful!

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.

Regardless of decisions made about our sidewalks, we want to start a neighborhood conversation about keeping our streets looking beautiful with trees.

Neighborhood street tree committee

We are a group of residents working to maintain tree-lined streets in our neighborhood. Our members include:

Our current and planned actions include:

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:

Sidewalk and street tree survey

Thank you to everyone who took the survey during the summer of 2025. We are currently working to review the results. A report on our findings will be posted here when it's complete.

Benefits of street trees

Street trees provide many benefits because they:

Contact

If you have any questions, email Madeline Hehir at mmhehir@gmail.com.