Trees

Street trees provide both comfort and beauty: As they protect pedestrians from light rain and beating sun, they add aesthetic value to the streetscape. The most idyllic villages would be nothing without them.

But, along the way, the majesty of mature native trees was set aside in favor of the instant gratification of quick-growing imported trees. Though these trees grow tall fast, they are short-lived. Their roots destroy sidewalks and branches tangle in electric wires and become a falling hazard.

Nonnative trees also spread their seeds into local woods, out-competing native vegetation and changing the natural landscape for the worse, and they are less useful to the insects, birds and other wildlife that co-evolved with native trees.

These are among the reasons it is so heartening that the Bridgehampton Citizens Advisory Committee has made so much progress on the choice and care of street trees on Main Street. In 2018, CAC members started a conversation with town officials about what species of trees would be the best for their hamlet to replace trees lost during sidewalk improvement work.

The ideal locations were identified to give new trees the best chance of survival while best enhancing the streetscape. What they chose for under utility lines are Eastern redbud, a short tree with lavender-pink flowers, and, where tree height is not an issue, red oaks — oaks being the most valuable tree species to native insects in the Northeast.

The Bridgehampton CAC is seeking to extend this degree of care into street tree selection townwide. The CAC members ask the Town Board to codify a thoughtful selection process and to mandate that tree care and removal is under the supervision of an experienced arborist.

If this measure is enacted, our hamlets will be better for it long into the future. We’re glad someone cared.