PROJECT
VILLAGE AWARDED $40K GRANT FOR TREES
COLD SPRING COMMUNITY COLONNADE PROJECT Jan 2024 We are pleased to announce that the village has won a sustainability grant in the amount of $40,000 from the Anahata Foundation for the implementation of a tree planting, pruning and problem-solving pilot project designed to invest in the village's oldest and youngest trees and to begin to target some of the more difficult infrastructure conflict problems inhibiting our street tree canopy. The successful grant application was written and prepared by the members of the Tree Advisory Board with the support of the mayor and Board of Trustees. Within the Village of Cold Spring there are more than 600 public street and park trees. These trees are symbols of perseverance, growing with fortitude, and by necessity, in harsh and narrow strips of earth along our well-worn village pathways. Together they form the most traversed and most visible colonnade of our community canopy. These trees belong to everyone, as do the environmental and social gifts they provide. The work of their tending is left to village government and volunteers whose efforts are bounded by a sparse public budget. Rarely are enough funds left after annual storm damage mitigation and response to infrastructure conflicts and public complaints to allow for heartening activities like investment-level structural pruning, large-scale planting, growth minded projects and bigger-picture thinking. This situation, though not at all uncommon for small communities, does at times make weary we who hold fast to the hopeful act of planting and caring for these neglected spaces. The Cold Spring Community Colonnade Project will provide a boost to this work of preserving and growing our collective canopy for the benefit of all, present and future. The project consists of 1) a group planting of 24 new trees; 2) an investment level pruning project targeting the youngest and oldest trees on our streets and parks; and 3) a final (and most exciting) component that will consist of the design/development of an innovative root friendly sidewalk redesign and street tree planting that will serve as a model of tree-supportive infrastructure planning in one of several prominent area of sparse urban canopy. The project will achieve a big step toward increasing the resilience of our “urban forest” as it faces the challenges of climate change, ensuring our street tree colonnade will thrive for the benefit of future generations. If you would to be notified of volunteer opportunities on this project please contact Tree Advisory Board chairperson Jennifer Zwarich at [email protected]. Future updates and progress photos of this grant project will be posted on this page as well as on the village website at coldspringny.gov/tree-advisory-board |