Jeff Brett was just recently appointed to the newly created position of City Forester to help coup with the damage from the 2006 October Storm and already he’s got a lot to do. The picture with this post, provided by Paul Szpakowski, is of Buffalo’s oldest tree. It’s on Franklin Street near Virginia Avenue, and if you can tell from the picture, it isn’t doing so hot.
Brett says that because of the warm month of April followed by the frost in May, Sycamores all over the city were damaged. If that wasn’t the worst of it, the Sycamore Anthracnose, a fungus that causes serious damage, and the Sycamore plant bug are certainly not helping matters.
“We’ve been taking some measures to sort of mitigate it. It really took a beating. I think we’ll be able to pull through,” says Brett. Efforts are well under way to restore the oldest tree as well as many of the trees in Martin Luther King Park. Brett says that most of the trees in the park have bounced back. Their foliage first came out a brown color due to the fungus, but they have grown a healthy new set.
However, news is not so good for the oldest tree. With the frost damage and the bug combined, it is doing a little worse. Brett says they fertilized the tree to help it along, but that it isn’t out of the woods yet. Right now, they are planning to inject protection against the fungus directly into the tree trunk, which will last for three years. As for the bugs, due to a city ordinance, they aren’t supposed to spray on municipal property. So instead, they will inject a chemical into the soil by the roots to protect the tree.
Dealing with things like this is what Brett has been up to since his appointment in April 2008. He says, “It’s been pretty busy. We’re just fighting a battle with some budgetary issues.” Brett says that with no city crew, response time for complaints can be pretty slow. Right now, Brett manages contractors and works with consultants to do work on the trees all over the city.
Even with some struggling, Brett says that they have managed to plant just under 1,000 trees on the street this spring. Since the city of Buffalo has partnered with Re-Tree WNY, he says “We’re up to about 2,500 trees since the storm.” Brett says that his department will be planting another 1,000-2,000 trees this fall on city right-of-ways. “Between them [and us], we’re getting everything planted and pruned,” says Brett.