Clearing Trees Can Have Disastrous Unintended Consequences
By Charles Sanders
I write concerning the scoping of the full state Environmental Quality (SEQR) review mandated by the Mount Pleasant Planning Board regarding the proposed 31-lot cluster project for 715 Sleepy Hollow Rd. in Pocantico Hills.
Specifically, I wish to draw attention to the oral comments received by the board at its Oct. 18 hearing addressing the issue of preserving the rare oak and tulip tree forest that currently occupies the property and which serves as home to myriad, protected animal and plant species.
The board has already received numerous, lengthy explanations concerning the importance of protecting the Critical Environmental Areas that may be drastically damaged by development of the property.
One of the issues that has not received proper attention, however, is the point raised at the hearing by Ms. Moira Trachtenberg: that the cutting of some trees in a sensitive forest environment can lead to the death of many other trees within that forest, producing unintended destruction and deforestation. That issue is especially pertinent in the present case, where evidence of just such a phenomenon was illustrated on two parcels situated within feet of the property.
It is now settled science that trees within a forest grouping often have symbiotic relationships with one another through the joining of their underground root systems.
According to a recent article published by the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences:
“This complex network connecting trees is dependent on a symbiotic relationship with microbes in the soil, like fungi and bacteria. Symbiosis is when two separate organisms form a mutually advantageous relationship with each other. Fungi can cover a large surface area by developing white fungal threads known as mycelium. Mycelium spreads out on top of tree roots by up-taking sugars from the tree and by providing vital minerals back to the tree, such as nitrogen and phosphorus…This symbiotic relationship between tree roots and fungi is known as the mycorrhizal network (from Greek, Myco, “fungi” and Rhiza, “root”).
“To identify the species that constitute the mycorrhizal network, scientists have utilized recent technological advances in DNA sequencing and big-data analysis. Microbiologists have identified different species of fungi and bacteria that form symbiotic relationships with different species of trees. Scientists believe all trees have a mycorrhizal network, but trees only communicate with each other if the fungal and bacterial species that constitute their mycorrhizal networks are the same. The most common combination of fungi constitute the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) network, which has been found to be important for nutrient uptake in 65% of all trees and plant species. The remaining 35% of tree and plant species may have combinations of other fungi varieties that comprise their networks.”
Over the past approximately four years, significant construction and tree cutting has been undertaken on two parcels of land located directly across the street from the western end of the property, at 59 and 61 Old Sleepy Hollow Rd. During that process (from my observations), developers chain-sawed about two dozen mature trees of significant height and girth on those parcels, in what I am certain they claimed was “limited” thinning of the semi-forested residential properties.
A few months later, as any local observer can verify, many of the remaining trees began to sicken and die. I witnessed this myself on a daily basis. As a result, today there remains a single tree out of the several that were not originally cleared on the street-facing portion of the 59 Old Sleepy Hollow Rd. parcel closest to the property, and only a handful of mature trees left on the street side of the 61 Old Sleepy Hollow Rd. parcel out of many more not originally cut.
Under such circumstances, it is clear to any reasonable observer that the 715 Sleepy Hollow Rd. property may well sit within a particularly sensitive forest environment with a mycorrhizal network, the disturbance of which has a profoundly negative effect on all trees in the immediate vicinity.
I respectfully suggest that such an obviously observed and potentially dangerous environmental phenomenon at least mandates further investigation by scientific consultants (perhaps those familiar with the local environment in the neighboring Rockefeller Preserve) and should be included as part of the scoping of the full SEQR Environmental Impact Statement on the property.
Such scoping should also encompass the necessity for an examination of the deforested parcels at 59 and 61 Old Sleepy Hollow Rd., and a questioning of local residents and the developers involved (including those who constructed the new parking lot at the end of Old Sleepy Hollow Road in Pocantico Lake Park) in order to avoid repetition of this catastrophic environmental result should the 715 Sleepy Hollow Rd. property project go forward, even in a limited way.
New York State statutes would seem to require scoping that includes such an investigation as a matter of law in light of these observable facts.
Charles Sanders is a Briarcliff Manor resident. This letter was submitted to the Mount Pleasant Planning Board on Dec. 1 and was requested to be published as the board’s vote whether to accept the scoping document for the project is scheduled for Dec. 20.
Examiner Media – Keeping you informed with professionally-reported local news, features, and sports coverage.
