Health, Safety & the Environment

According to this morning’s Greenwich Time, Greenwich Academy apologized to the Greenwich P&Z for cutting down about 100 trees near its tennis courts last October, an act which First Selectman Peter Tesei described as “flouting” the town’s regulations.  Worse, neighbors of the school in the complained that the trees had been an effective barrier and prevented headlights from vehicles from shining on Patterson Avenue residents. What could Greenwich Academy have been thinking?  Trees are one of Greenwich’s valuable resources. The Greenwich Tree Conservatory, which was established by concerned Greenwich citizens in 2007, was chartered to educate citizens and businesses on the value and benefit of trees and importance of stewardship.  The seed for the conservancy was planted in 2006 at a program at the Bruce Museum entitled, “Clear Cut: Coming a Neighborhood Near You?”, which was sponsored in partnership with the  Connecticut League of Conservation Voters Education Fund (“CTCLV Ed Fund“) I would urge someone from GA to join the Board of the conservancy to demonstrate GA’s commitment to tree stewardship in the future.   Trees are routinely cut down by developers, even on town property, if it will improve the view from their multi-million dollar edifices. Although these developers routinely apologize and cry “Oops”, we hear little about the levying of fines for destruction of trees on town property.  In any event, what’s a $1,500 fine when cutting down the tree may create better water views that will increase the value of a property by tens of thousands of dollars?  We all need to suppport the efforts of Bruce Spaman, Greenwich’s Tree Warden.  Fines for the destruction of trees on town property such carry gravity-based fines.  In other words, the economic benefit to the  offender should be considered in coming up with an appropriate fine.