SUNDERLAND — Root protection matting and two-by-fours wrapped around the trunk are some of the precautions that will be taken to protect the famous Buttonball Tree on North Main Street during construction.
The North Main Street (Route 47) sidewalks are the next target of an extensive project that is already underway. As the project nears the Buttonball Tree, wood chips will be placed in the area in front of it, according to Town Administrator Geoff Kravitz.
Kravitz said workers will use mats to prevent damage to the tree’s roots among other protective measures.
“We’ve asked them to use their lightest tools,” Kravitz said. “(They’ll use) tree protection armoring, which as I understand it is two-by-fours around the tree.”
In April, the town also negotiated putting up a metal fence, designating a “tree protection zone” during the road reconstruction portion of the work. The fence is now in place.
Baltazar Contractors is the company undertaking the project. Ian Premo, the company’s superintendent, said company policy forbids him from commenting on specifics, but tree protection will be part of an on-site meeting Thursday to further discuss the sidewalks. He added that his company will take every precaution necessary to avoid damaging the trees in the area.
“(The meeting is) to discuss what is going on onsite,” Premo said. “(It will discuss ways) to limit the disturbance as much as possible.”
Kravitz said most details about protecting the Buttonball Tree have been finalized and the meeting will confirm if the new sidewalk will fit onto the existing one or “overlap into the green space.”
It is highly likely any excavation done for the sidewalk will encounter the Buttonball Tree’s roots, according to a March 2020 report by David Hawkins, who is an arborist with Urban Forestry Solutions and was hired by Sunderland.
The Sunderland Buttonball Tree on North Main Street is an enormous, nearly 400-year-old American sycamore. It is a common tourist attraction and is significant enough to have its own Wikipedia page. It is more than 100 feet tall and is believed to be the largest of its kind east of the Mississippi River.
A plaque, embedded in a rock in front of the tree, states the National Arborist Association and the International Society of Arboriculture in 1987 recognized the tree as having been in Sunderland when the U.S. Constitution was signed 200 years earlier.
Kravitz said the entire North Main Street project is expected to be mostly complete by October. A construction project schedule — last updated in March — is available at bit.ly/3usw9CP.
“It is moving along on schedule,” Kravitz wrote in an email. “I spoke with the project super today and he is still anticipating full beneficial use in October.”
Premo said he expects the project to be “wrapped up” by Columbus Day.
“It wasn’t the easiest job based on the design,” Premo said. “Between the town and the state, things kind of worked out.”
Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.