Saving the West End Trees

In my neighborhood of the West End of Hartford, we take trees seriously. Gigantic trees loom over many of the houses, providing shade in the summer, beauty in the fall, and homes for animals and birds throughout the year. Here’s a look at just a few of these beauties as I step out my side door…



Sometimes the trees are cut down, usually for a variety of reasons; they get diseased, a storm damages them, they’re in the way of some public works project, they pose danger to a house.

These trees at the Noah Webster MicroSociety Magnet School were suddenly gone one day. I don’t know what they did wrong, they appeared perfectly healthy. Maybe they posed some threat to the newly renovated school?

Many people in my neighborhood are opposed to seeing the trees leveled, if they can be saved for any reason. Sometimes flyers are passed around and we’re asked to gather to meet with the City at the site of the tree that is tagged to be chopped down. We ask them to leave the trees alone. They add to the character of our neighborhood and many of them were here before we were.

I received a flyer this weekend for a meeting tomorrow about a tree on Tremont Street. Hopefully it will not meet the fate of its fallen comrades across the street at the school. Live long tall tree!