Update on the Thorndike St. willow tree

[ron_newman]

(I've been waiting for someone more involved with the situation to post. But they haven't, so I will.)

On SomervilleVoices, Greg Nadeau reports that harpist Deborah Henson-Conant and the 70-person Arlington High School Choir gathered Tuesday afternoon at the willow tree to sing songs and film a video. Greg also hired an independent arborist from Boston Tree Preservation who will visit next Tuesday to "assess the tree's health and fate."

Here's Deborah Henson Conant's page about the tree, with photos of the choir, three streaming audio song tracks about the tree, and more photos, lyrics, and other cool stuff. She promises a YouTube video soon, but it's not up yet.

Some links to this week's Somerville Journal coverage:
Neighbors plan fond farewell for a neighborhood willow today
Harpist dedicates song to threatened Somerville willow tree

and Somerville News coverage:
Somerville loves trees: Neighborhood standoff saves weeping willow, for now (also has a blog comment from Henson-Conant)
Arlington loves trees, too: Arlington High choir celebrates endangered Somerville tree

Comments

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Jesus Christ.

[ron_newman]

No sightings of him just yet.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Any minute now...

[georgy.livejournal.com]

I heard someone spotted his visage in the tree bark. ;-)

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Excellent. Then once the tree is cut down he can raise it from the dead.

[maelithil.livejournal.com]

More power to them. I'm glad they hired an independent arborist, that should settle matters.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

It would be nice if similar injustices in our transit system could attract this kind of attention.

[arrowintwolakes.livejournal.com]

Or, you know, ANYTHING THAT ACUTALLY MATTERS.

[roosto.livejournal.com]

Well said good sir or madam!

Sir, btw

[arrowintwolakes.livejournal.com]

I'm all for standing up for what you believe in, but I've read comments from affected residents, I've seen the letter from the landlord in question, this tree is toast and furthermore a danger to property and people. The people trying to save it could be using all this energy on an entire galazy of more worthy projects. Fruitlessly, and ignorantly, attempting to save what is ultimately a hazard is infuriatingly stupid.

Re: Sir, btw

[firepail.livejournal.com]

Exactly!

Re: Sir, btw

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

WORD.

[ron_newman]

Lots and lots of local folks have been involved with the Green Line extension project, if that's what you are referring to.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

What, no appearance by

[infinitemorning.livejournal.com]

Even the Lorax just wants the freaking thing cut down already. He told me himself the last time we were playing Rock Band over at Charlie the Unicorn's house.

*sigh* If they can find a way to preserve the tree safely, I guess, more power to them. I'm just damned sick of this. It needs to go! It's sad! I wish it wasn't so! But it's a Goddamned TREE! Maybe if it were a gay tree or a tree that has to commute to work every morning or a tree indicted for corruption then we'd finally see the damn hippies give some attention to issues that deserve it. Sadly, it is JUST A TREE.

On a related note, it is Goddamned amazing that my blood pressure is still as good as it is.

[firepail.livejournal.com]

I want a moratorium declared on the willow posts, they are almost, ALMOST, as painful as the Tom Champion episode at this point.

Maybe they will do something cool with the stump--like carve it into a seat. Isn't there a tree stump carved into a seat and painted red in Cambridge? I can't remember where though.

[ron_newman]

Repetitive posts will be deleted, but both surrealestate and I thought that the events and news articles described in this post were new and noteworthy.

Just to make things clear: Deborah Henson-Conant wrote the songs years ago, not specially for this occasion. She has been working for months with the Arlington High School choir to have them sing one of her songs at their upcoming concert. Only when she learned that the tree might soon fall did she bring the choir here to sing.

[arrowintwolakes.livejournal.com]

I just thought of something: this manifestation of people's prosecution complexes was meant to be removed a couple weeks ago when the weather was mild and the ground soft. The ground likely isn't frozen or much hardened now moreso than then, but the weather is much, much more severe. So they're not only prolonging a public hazard, they're ultimately increasing the work and the sufferring of the people who will ultimately remove this tree.

REMEMBER, TREES > PEOPLE, ALWAYS

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Congratulations, protesters, you helped screw a local business for something they were correct about in the first place.

Frankly, I don't think the busybodies who did this give a fuck about businesses getting screwed, unless it's matter of the businessman doing a bad job of it, and failing to renew a lease, or pay back taxes ...

In other words - only deadbeats get respect.

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

What about Sexual Harrassment Panda? Where is he going to live? He's going to be a saaaad panda.

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

... lol.

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

I agree wholeheartedly that this tree has to go. I'm surprised it's survived this long in a congested city like Somerville. Willow trees search out water, hence the problems caused by the roots, because if not planted near a source of water like a pond or lake, they search out water in other places, like your pipes!
And I think a great indication of how clueless these people are, fighting for a doomed tree before the people affected by it, is that they brought in a choir (that in itself is ludicrous!) from Arlington High School. I'd like to hear why they didn't bring in a choir from Somerville High School, or at least one of the adult choirs in Somerville. Maybe they were too smart to get involved in something so stupid????

[ron_newman]

Deborah Henson-Conant was working with the Arlington High School choir on the song about this tree, for months before she learned that it might be cut down. See my comment above.

Some of the folks in the neighborhood say that an underground stream (Tannery Brook) exists below the tree, and they are concerned about increased flooding if the tree is removed.