Jeff, glad you're fighting the good fight - it would be a huge loss to the city and this very notable block to lose this tree. A couple of years ago I took a neighborhood tour led by Chris Brown, which used this tree as a meeting place. This block of Franklin is an amazing piece of Buffalo, with treasures such as this tree, and the Caulkins House (http://www.buffaloah.com/a/franklin/415/index.html). You can learn nearly everything about Victorian home architecture on just this block.

Given these serious problems with the Sycamores, I wonder if all are in danger, or if there are varieties which are immune or resistant--?

What about a system where residents can grow and provide trees for their streets. The beauty of nature is it is CHEAP. I grew about 5 elms and chestnut trees least year but had nowhere to put them. Finding a contact (i guess before brett's time) was impossible. Trees are a problem that could easily be fixed with just a group of people growing trees from seed and then planting them. They grow stronger and better if exposed to the microclimate of their home from the beginning then transplanting saplings to a site anyhow. If they die.. ohh well it happens but no real money was spent.

It would be great if the city used its tree database to provide spots for tree that the public could replant themselves. informing the city of when and what they planted to the database could be updated but we would need help from the city to know what kinds of trees we are allowed to plant and were. All this could be done rather easily through the internet and GIS applications. If done I could easily and willingly grow several dozen trees / year and plant free of charge to the city.

There seem to be are very few real mature street trees left around. An elm here a sycamore there but it is a shame when you go down streets that have 1 or two mature trees left. they stand out like giants and force one to imagine what the streets used to look like, often followed by sadness about their current status. My new north buffalo street is a sad sight compared to Allentown when it comes trees. It takes so much time for a tree to grow and mature we really do need to plan ahead and maintain trees better.

I still remember my grandparents talking about the days before dutch elm and how the one thing (more than a building or jobs) that they miss the most about the city was the loss of trees.

It is also something outside of aesthetics that would pay for themselves. Storm water, air pollution (health care costs) and property values are all things that benefit from trees and the city's disregard for the position for so long is annoying. The last forester left the position because there was a lack of cooperation and respect for him. What does it matter if you have one but no one listens or budgets anything for. Thankfully the October storm helps kick the admin's ass in gear to fill the position again but how many trees would be in better condition and might not have died because of the storm IF the position was supported BEFORE the storm. lack of vision and planning again. I hate that this admin is 100% reactionary. Whether it is the Atwater\Livery or an October storm nothing seems to change until the city has already lost battles and we are left saving the remnants and picking up the pieces. I guess I am glad that things do happen but I wonder what will be the next loss before someone things ahead a little bit.

I have a few thoughts to follow up with what "sbrof" posted.

First, no amount of pre-storm maintenance would have prevented the losses or reduced the damage. The weight of the snow on full canopied trees was the culpret. The trees can only withstand so much force before they structurally collapse. Additionally, the tree species with the highest loss was silver maple. These trees typically have poor architecture to begin with and do not recover well from damage.

As for growing trees from seed and planting them along the streets, it seems like a great idea, if there is a protocol established for doing so. I can envision a program using vacant city lots where the trees can be grown, coupled with training of volunteers to properly prune the trees during the 7-9 years it may take prior to transplanting them to the street. In the meantime while the program is being developed and the trees are grown everyone can help out with the ReTree program. Just because growing trees from seed appears to be cheap, you must consider the longer term maintenance of the trees once they are established on public property. A cheap tree with poor architecture doesn't seem like a bargain when it's lying in your living room 50 years from now.

Hopefully our ancestors will be talking about the tree work we have completed three-hundred years from now.

My trips to Founding Fathers just wouldn't be the same without that tree...

was it really 4 years ago the october storm?? coulda swore it was much more recent than that...

I can remember walking to school in the early sixties under a canopy of elms that formed a tunnel of green. When it rained it would take quite a while to drip through. The streets have never looked the same since. Hope this old sycamore survives.

true but properly maintained trees could have recovered sooner or survived the loss of branches because of the weight.. Also looking at the types of trees that suffered greatly is a good way to establish future planting schemes. The sycamore here from this article lots many tiny limbs but nothing compared to the maples or chestnuts on my former street on N Pearl. Actually I was joking that the tree was probably laughing at the younger wipper snappers that he has gone through this kind of storm several times before.

Also Elms seems to fair much better than other types also. If anything the storm and this sycamore disease shows just how important a well balanced variety of trees are important for all of their survival. There were also reasons that elms were planted in the first place because they handle the stresses of city life better than many other varieties. There are many trees that got dutch elm in our own city that survived it and many still stand today on the east side. I always thought the city should propagate them as test samples to see if they are genetically better at fighting the disease compared to others. There must be some reason they lived while the whole rest of the street or neighborhood died.

I had several growing myself about 5 years ago but again without any place to plant them. Eventually they end up in wooded areas of parks or dead from lack of room to grow and expand their roots.