Tree plan stirs conflict - Native or naturalized?

By Nick Grabbe
Staff Writer

Published on March 24, 2006

A plan to replace a few crabapple trees downtown has erupted into a botanical feud, with a call for 'native' plantings being scoffed at as impractical and 'intellectually muddled.'

The Select Board will be asked Monday to approve removal of the crabapples. Although many people have praised the beauty of their spring bloom, the trees are starting to rot and their roots are pushing up the sidewalk.

Select Board Chairwoman Anne Awad said she prefers to replace them with a native species, and said she believes her board should be consulted on the decision. Tree Warden Stanley Ziomek said he thinks the choice is up to him.

Ziomek and the Public Shade Tree Committee say they are most concerned about the ability of trees to survive in an urban setting and avoiding damage to the sidewalks.

But Awad wants a 'classic' look.

'I object to Japanese species lining our streets,' said Awad. 'They are beautiful and fun to see when visiting Japan. We have a classic New England downtown and I would maintain that traditional native species match with that.'

In an email note to Town Planner Jonathan Tucker, distributed this week at a meeting of the shade tree committee, Awad wrote, 'It would be regrettable to have a struggle over who has the power to 'choose' the trees that grace the town. I prefer to believe that it is the Select Board working equally with the committee and other interested participants who would decide/come to consensus.'

Robert Erwin, a committee member, called Awad's email 'intellectually muddled and politically conceited' at a Wednesday meeting. 'She obviously doesn't know anything about botany,' he said. 'We're not doing a Colonial theme park.'

A new sidewalk will be installed on the east side of North Pleasant this summer, and the project calls for a greater number and variety of trees in different places. Ziomek said he has the authority to decide what trees to plant, but a meeting has been scheduled April 26 to receive public comments.

In addition to the four crabapples, there are seven linden trees along North Pleasant, and all but one of them will remain. The plans call for 18 trees from eight species, including three of Asian descent, two hybrids, one southern species, and two cultivated native varieties.

Noting that Asian trees have been common in Amherst for more than a century, committee member William Hutchinson said, 'If they're not native, they're naturalized.'

Street trees are different from trees on the town common because they live in a stressful environment, said Tucker, the planning director.

'You don't want to plant trees that are grossly different from what's in the environment, but New England was shaped by the people who manipulated it even before Europeans got here,' he said. 'Many (of those selected) have native genetics but they're not the same kind as at Puffer's Pond.'

Although native species would provide 'a warm, fuzzy feeling,' criteria such as survival and sidewalk integrity must come first in an urban setting, said James Scott, who co-chairs the Amherst Tree Initiative, a citizen advocacy group.

'Native species would be much more important if you were talking of a more suburban or rural setting, where trees would interact with the native environment,' he said. 'Here you have an artificial environment and you're just trying to enhance it.'

Awad said she has no objection to 'native' trees that have been adapted for growing on busy streets, such as red oak and scarlet oak. But she's a traditionalist in wanting to see New England trees in downtown Amherst, and needs no expertise in tree species to hold that position, she said.

In an interview this week, Awad said Ziomek has 'gotten his back up' over a difference of opinion that has turned into a power struggle. 'His attitude seems to be 'I have the power, I'm the tree czar,'' she said.

Committee members will explain the issues at next month's public meeting.

'Perhaps someone will suggest a variety that's close to a native species that hasn't been considered,' Tucker said. 'But unless you go out in the woods and dig something up, none of the trees used for street trees are native.'

Nick Grabbe can be reached at ngrabbe@gazettenet.com.