by When Robert Herbst returned to his hometown about 30 miles north of New York City in 1992, he wanted his children to be immersed in the lush greenery of his childhood. But over the years, he noticed that more trees were coming down to make way for bigger houses.
Herbst, a lawyer, and other like-minded residents of Mamaroneck, New York, see the disappearing trees as a serious threat in the era of climate change.
“We should be protecting trees to survive,” said Jacob Levitt, a dermatologist who lives in Mamaroneck. “It’s suicidal not to.”
Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times
But some residents say they should have the right to remove any and all trees on their property to make way for more sunlight or home expansion, or simply because they want them gone.
“People want to landscape the way they want to landscape,” said Eve Neuman, a real estate agent who lives in the area.
Recently, the debate has become more heated because of a new law that expands the town’s oversight of where and when trees can be cut down.
Mamaroneck’s old tree law was drafted in the 1980s and only required tree removal permits on lots 20,000 square feet and larger. The new measure, enacted in February, requires permits for smaller lots that encompass about 80% of the town covered by the law.
Homeowners no longer need to explain their removal requests, describe the trees or notify their neighbors that a permit has been issued. They must remove trees and replant them or get permission to donate $300 per tree to a planting fund. No license is required to remove dangerous or dead trees that may pose a hazard. Otherwise, small properties can remove up to three trees per year; on larger lots, up to seven.
“It’s just a controlled way to cut down trees,” said Andrea Hirsch, a local lawyer who is representing a group of tree advocates to challenge the new law in court. She added that the new law no longer requires an environmental review before moving, and that property owners can get approval to exceed the annual limit if trees interfere with the desired use of the property, like putting a set of swings in the backyard.
Some homeowners support the law, but feel it is an overreach. “My property, my trees,” longtime resident John Phillipson wrote in an online comment, adding, “We’re too controlled by the government as it is.”
The lawsuit is pending, and both parties are due back in court later this month.
With the Long Island Sound to the east and two large rivers crossing the town, Mamaroneck has a flooding problem. But it’s also a popular place to live: The average price of single-family homes sold this year is around $1.5 million. The town is part of Westchester County, a suburban region in southeastern New York that has seen intense continuous development.
Across Westchester, canopy cover — the amount of foliage and branches that shade the ground — is declining, according to a 2022 study led by Andrew Reinmann, an assistant professor at the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center and Hunter College. He spoke at a public meeting in Mamaroneck during the discussion of the tree law.
As of 2021, canopy cover in Mamaroneck had gone back to about 41% of the town’s land area, an alarming loss of about 7% from 2011, Reinmann said.
“As the tree canopy cover decreases, you can see tangible increases in local temperatures and increased reliance on electricity to cool homes and buildings,” he said. Trees provide shade, catch rain and release moisture back into the air.
But some homeowners in Mamaroneck bristle at being told what to do.
Since a residential building went up in a vacant lot behind Phillipson’s house in the 1990s, his backyard has been flooded, and his vegetable garden has been overshadowed, he said. To allow more sunlight, he removed two trees on his property, he said, adding that he was able to do so without seeking permits. And he wants to keep that right.
“I’d like to see the law relaxed and give the homeowner a chance to do what they want,” said Phillipson, a retiree who bought his Mamaroneck home 40 years ago.
The debate over how to balance environmental concerns and property rights is becoming more common, said Max Besbris, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who specializes in housing and climate change. “There are very real concerns” about best practices, he said, especially since a home is the largest purchase many people will ever make.
The new tree law came into effect because the town’s environmental advisory group was concerned about the increase in the number of trees felled at the same time as the temperature rise and flooding.
The town’s supervisor, Jaine Elkind Eney, who is also a real estate lawyer, was able to work with her four board members. “There was a lot of give and take,” she said.
But when the board passed the new law unanimously, there was an outcry from the tree’s advocates. They argued that it was too easy to remove trees from the new measure and that its annual limits were too generous, and that older trees, which have a powerful impact on the environment, had lost some protections.
The new law includes a scale for the number of replacement trees that must be planted for each tree removed. For example, a mature tree with a trunk diameter greater than 1.5 feet would need to be replaced with four young trees.
“We will be increasing the tree canopy, albeit over time,” said Elkind Eney.
Frank Buddingh’, a local arborist, said it is not the same as replacing an old tree with four new ones. Hundreds of young trees would be needed to produce as much oxygen as a felled 100-year-old tree – with its carbon storage capacity and extensive crown and root system – he said.
In Westchester County, about half of all municipalities have tree laws. New York and most other states place the onus on municipalities to come up with tree regulations for private property and public spaces, and most public forests are controlled by state and federal agencies.
Buddingh wants trees to be seen as valuable resources to be protected and controlled, like the air, he said. “They should be on an asset list and not an expense list,” he said.
c.2024 The New York Times Company
