Summers in the Hudson Valley are hot. They are humid. We know this. We also know that they’re getting hotter, abysmally hotter, from the impacts of climate change. Shade trees and swimming holes are the places where residents have always found refuge from scorching summer temperatures: that umbrella of sunless shade falling from a large leaf canopy or that refreshing splash of cool water hitting the submerging skin.
New Paltz, particularly the Village of New Paltz, has always prided itself on its arbor amour, touting Tree City USA declarations, tree-planting programs and even its own Shade Tree Commission, which is dedicated to protecting shade trees within the Village right-of-way and working with residents to plant future shade trees.
But finding shade is not an easy task. There used to be a plethora of old trees in downtown New Paltz that provided shade for foot-travelers and those seeking some shelter; some of those venerable trees are no longer standing. Hudson Valley One wanted to find out the current “State of the Shade” from our village trees, and hit the Haviland-Heidgerd Historical Collection at the Elting Memorial Library to find out where all the shade trees had gone.
Based on newspaper accounts and photos in the 1970s, there was a big bustle about the health and wealth that trees brought to the urban center. The Downtown Business Association worked with village trustees to protect trees slated for demolition due to parking concerns, and to plant trees actively in an effort to make the village more attractive. Robert Van Vlack, then-owner of Bomze’s Pharmacy downtown, was quoted in the New Paltz News as saying that the “image of downtown is not as good as it could be because it lacks trees in the area.” He suggested that the community invest in more tree plantings to “warm” the downtown center, and personally went to great lengths to save trees that grew behind the pharmacy.
The New Paltz News published an entire series on trees, including some of the largest, oldest and rarest specimens that graced the local landscape. One of these was the large chestnut tree that stood for at least 100 years in front of the restaurant that is now Lola’s, but used to be McGuinn’s Village Inn back in 1977. This particular tree was the last survivor of its kind to be located on its namesake street, North Chestnut. According to reports from local historians and representatives from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), this particular tree was a horse chestnut, and thus did not die from the blight that nearly wiped out American chestnuts in the Northeast in the 1930s.
Despite the reverence for this particular tree, efforts by the village board and local residents who lobbied for its survival, the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) chopped it down in the spring of 1988 in order to widen the intersection at Chestnut and Main Street. There’s a picture from the New Paltz News of the tree bearing the caption “Death Row,” after the DOT announced that it was going ahead with felling the chestnut.
A story in a May 1983 issue of the New Paltz News cited the horror expressed by residents who lived west of the Wallkill River upon finding a large old oak tree denuded of all of its limbs. According to the article, the perpetrator of the destruction was the Ulster County Highway Department, who felt that the tree should come down. “It was a landmark, and now it looks naked out there,” said Town councilwoman Joan Cornwell, noting that the answer the Town and Village received from the highway department was “not satisfactory” as to why the tree was destroyed. “People live in New Paltz for many reasons, one of which is its beauty. One of the things that makes it beautiful are its many trees. I feel that this incident has robbed us all of something.”
Another beloved tree in the Village was one of the rare remaining American elm trees that stood sentinel next to the bank on the corner of Main Street and Plattekill Avenue. The tree was one of a few American elms to have survived the epidemic of Dutch elm disease, a fungal infestation introduced to the US in 1928, which caused the death of 75 percent of the country’s estimated 77 million elms in the span of only 60 years. Yet, right here in New Paltz, there was still a mature elm flourishing, and it became the pride of the downtown.
In early 1980, village board members, local arborists and tree specialists from the DEC fretted over the safety of the elm tree, which they believed was being threatened by another rare elm down the road, on a rear lot behind North Chestnut Street owned by Robert Gabrielli. The elm on Gabrielli’s property was dying from the fungus that is spread by elm bark beetles. They feared that the beetles would spread the disease to the healthy elm on Main Street, and needed Gabrielli’s cooperation to take his tree down.
But Gabrielli was embroiled in a lawsuit against two police commissioners who had suspended him from the New Paltz Police force, and he also owed the village $490 for 45 unpaid parking tickets. Negotiations became heated, but eventually Gabrielli acquiesced and had his dying elm removed. For the next two decades, the 150-year-old on Plattekill lived, until it too succumbed to the fungal disease, despite the village’s efforts to protect it. In the spring of 1998, the tree was removed.
Several other treasured trunks highlighted in this newspaper series are no longer standing, including the 200-plus-year-old great white oak on South Oakwood; the twin willow trees at Hasbrouck Park; one of the oldest pin oaks in New York State that used to grace 115 Plattekill Avenue, across from the Village Hall; and a giant hackberry tree on Huguenot Street, to cite a few. Despite these losses, the Village of New Paltz was deemed “excel at Urban Forestry,” and became designated as a Tree City USA in 1987: a distinction it retains to this day.
To qualify for this honor, the Village had to have a Shade Tree Commission, a community tree ordinance and designate at least one dollar per resident toward the purchase and plantings of new trees, as well as an Arbor Day Proclamation and tree-planting ceremony. Residents who were instrumental in helping to secure this award included then-Shade Tree commissioners Lincoln Igou, Dan Guenther and Bob Lasher.
“We’re still a Tree City USA, and one of the longest members in New York State,” said mayor Tim Rogers, referring to an event held at SUNY New Paltz that highlighted both the village and the university’s commitment to tree plantings and protection “I also think that trees are important places for people to gather. I know we’ve lost so manyincredible trees over the years, but the village still has some wonderful old trees, and we continue to try and plant more mature trees — which cost more, but they have a much greater rate of success than younger trees do.”
Mayor Rogers believes that this legacy of urban forestry and shade tree protection continues to thrive in the village. “We’ve planted and continue to plant numerous trees in Peace Park, at Sojourner Truth Park and at Hasbrouck Park,” he said. “We budget for tree plantings every year, and work with our Shade Tree Commission to protect trees and to have our building department enforce our tree ordinance.”
Responding to complaints about lack of shade at Hasbrouck Park, where there is a public playground where parents like to take their children, the mayor said, “We have planted trees all around the perimeter of the playground, but trees take time to grow.” He noted that there are several memorial tree plantings at Hasbrouck Park that are maturing, including one for longtime New Paltz resident Floyd Patterson, the former Heavyweight Champion of the World.
“Our Shade Tree Commission also received a grant that allowed them to do an inventory of all of the trees in the village, which is a great benchmark,” Rogers said. “I think people are much more careful with trees and in recognizing their value. When site plans come before our planning boards, trees always come into the decisionmaking process, and the emphasis is on trying to keep them. But if they have to be removed, the next question is how they will be replaced.”
Rogers said that, like New Paltz mayors before him, particularly Tom Nyquist, the value of urban forestry, street trees and park trees is not lost on him, nor on the Village’s Shade Tree Commission, which has former town supervisor Neil Bettez as one of its members. Rogers pointed to a management plan that was paid for by a DEC grant to the town and village. Monetary values were ascribed to the village trees, reaching upwards of $870,000 for their “annual benefits,” which included air quality from the pounds of pollutants they remove from the air, the carbon dioxide they sequester, the millions of gallons of stormwater runoff they help prevent as well as their “aesthetic” value.
“The village is committed to the ongoing stewardship of our trees, as well as new plantings of trees,” said Mayor Rogers. “We understand the research that shows the incredible value that trees provide to our community character, our quality of life and public health.”
If you want to dive into the shade a bit more, there are awe-inspiring mature trees throughout the village, including the monster maples down by the Gardens for Nutrition and the Wallkill River; or the Huguenot Street larches: large conifers that are found on the Hasbrouck House green and next to the Old Fort; or the pin oaks that can be enjoyed walking through the Nyquist Wildlife Sanctuary off Huguenot Street.
Hudson Valley One would like to thank the Haviland-Heidgerd Historical Collection staff for their help in procuring news articles and photos from their archives on the history of trees within the Village borders and beyond.
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