Damage done to Westbrook maple tree

The RTD has an interesting story on a tree damaged during the construction of a new traffic circle at 1400 Westbrook. The twenty-foot silver maple’s roots were cut by a contractor without consulting an arborist.

a silver maple on Westbrook Avenue wasn’t supposed to be touched in a city project to build a traffic circle to slow vehicles down on the North Side thoroughfare. Instead, all of the tree’s roots along the street were cut by a contractor for the city

However!

But the city decided not to remove the tree. “Our intention right now is we want to rescue the tree and do what we can to salvage it,” said Marvin Williams, deputy director of the Department of Public Works, which oversees road projects and urban forestry.

Two professional arborists on the commission, Joel Koci and Andy Mason, offered free professional help to save the tree. And the commission recommended that, instead of cutting the tree and replacing it with 10 smaller trees, the city save the maple and plant five trees along the street beside it.