To the Editor:

I wrote this letter on April 1 to Guilderland’s town supervisor, Peter Barber, and parks supervisor, Gergory Weir.Gergory Weir.

On Monday, March 14, I hand delivered a letter and supporting documents, to Supervisor Barber’s office and to Parks’ Superintendent Wier, asking that they consider saving the Ginkgo tree at Tawasentha Park.  They told us that the tree would be saved and so, we stopped the campaign, following up with a letter of thanks, which was published in The Altamont Enterprise.            

On March 15, Mr. Wier called me to say that he and the superintendent had gone to the site, looked at the blueprints, and found that the ginkgo did not need to be chopped down, as they said it was 18 feet away from the pool house construction.

I wrote a sincere letter of thanks, on March 17, to the town and parks supervisor and sent a copy to The Altamont Enterprise, which published a full page photo spread of the tree during the fire, post-fire, and pre-construction.  We had planned to do a fundraiser to raise money to transplant the tree; however, Mr. Wier assured me that the tree would be saved.

Unfortunately, the town reversed its decision, and informed us of that on Wednesday, March 23.  On Thursday, March 24, I met with Mr. Wier to discuss the options, as a result of additional construction.   

We were given until Tuesday, April 5, to find a way to move the tree or it would be chopped down. That left us five days to try to raise the money to move the tree.  Had we started fundraising back when we had wanted to, the goal might have been reached.  As it is, five days to do a fundraiser is not sufficient.

As a result of the town’s reversal, and the short notice, we asked that the town transplant the tree, as you made a commitment to save the ginkgo.  We will make an attempt to raise the money and reimburse the town to the extent possible.

We were also told by Mr. Wier that we would have until Friday, April 1, to let him know if we could find someone to transplant the tree.  We called numerous tree experts and found two, Onderdonk and Starr, that could move the tree, and contacted Mr. Wier’s staff on Friday, April 1.

However, an inspection with a certified arborist, Mr. Michael McKenty, on Saturday April 2, revealed that construction that cut into the tree’s roots had already begun and that additional branches had been knocked off improperly.

We are asking that you please honor your commitment to save the ginkgo!

Please transplant the tree, as you have not left us enough time to fundraise.

Also, we are asking that anyone who wants to save the ginkgo, an ancient tree, extinct in nature in North America and South America, and send donations to the town of Guilderland for Saving the Ginkgo.

A petition to save the ginkgo will be hand delivered

Christina Diamente

Guilderland

Editor’s note: Guilderland Supervisor Peter Barber said the parks superintendent, Gregory Wier, thinks that moving the ginkgo tree “would be a very involved, and not likely successful, transplant.” This ginkgo tree’s root system, Barber said, is apparently very large. It’s not like that of a bush, with a compact root system that could be scooped out relatively easily. Barber said he has heard that there are 70 or more other ginkgoes in Tawasentha Park, “which is something I don’t believe people have really paid attention to.”