Objections to tree removals came from all over. Then North Hempstead made it easier to remove them.

When North Hempstead officials sought to remove a dangerous or diseased tree in a public right of way or on town property, it would follow a process: Affix a notice to the bark, post a description of it online and wait. If the seven-day notice period came and went without an objection, the tree could be removed. 

But the system had become a target for people living outside the town's boundaries, officials said. People from outside of Nassau County objected — including New Jersey — triggering an appeal mechanism requiring an arborist to decide the tree's fate.

Town officials hope a new policy, adopted Tuesday, will make it easier to remove those trees if they are in public rights of way or on town properties. The notice period will be 24 hours, and the trees will not be posted online. An arborist’s decision is also no longer required.

Instead, the amendments transferred “complete jurisdiction” to Gerard Losquadro, the town's highway superintendent. He has the authority to “make a final determination as to whether a tree should be left undisturbed, pruned, removed, or otherwise," according to the amendments.

The town also removed a requirement that a notice be posted on the tree in “black lettering on a bright orange or similar color background.”

The vote was 6-1, with Councilwoman Mariann Dalimonte opposed.

Supervisor Jennifer DeSena defended the changes during a town board meeting on Tuesday.

“Most of these situations are where the homeowner himself, or herself, has requested the tree to come down," DeSena said. "This is not a big surprise that we're going around taking trees down. This is so that the highway department has the discretion, so that in the case of a dangerous tree, we can address it."

Trees on cars

The previous policy made the process for removing trees too long and had resulted in trees falling on cars and people, Robert Bogle, the town’s chief deputy attorney, said at Tuesday's meeting. Complaints about planned removals came from people who lived outside the town who found the public notices online, said Umberto Mignardi, the town spokesman.

"People who live out of the town or even in another part of the world could arbitrarily object to [the] department’s decision," Mignardi said in a statement. He added that "the whole appeal process generally took several weeks, sometimes months."

Dalimonte registered the lone vote against the changes. Dalimonte said in an interview the town should have settled on a three-day public notice period. Twenty-four hours is too quick of a turnaround time, she added. 

"Say I'm in the hospital, dealing with one of my family members, and I come back, the tree could be gone," Dalimonte said. 

Bogle said the policy had “created a bureaucratic spiderweb."

“We’re seeing that, not only in lawsuits to the town, but that’s property damage to our constituents," he said during the public hearing.

Assessing the risk

Thomas Golon, an arborist and president of the Oyster Bay-based Wonderland Tree Care + Landscapes, said arborists play an important role in assessing a tree's risk factor.

"The arborist can make a better determination if a tree is hazardous or not," said Golon, a former president of the Long Island Arboricultural Association. "All trees are a potential hazard, right? Our job is to try to measure that potential." 

Margaret Galbraith, the president of Transition Town Port Washington, said during the hearing that 24 hours wasn't enough time for public input.

"Given changes in climate, with increased storms, heat waves and erosion, protecting our trees is essential to our well-being,” Galbraith said. “Instead of building resiliency on our peninsula, these new amendments will weaken it, bring down property values and destroy a lot of our town’s beauties.”

Galbraith said the town failed to consult its tree committee about the changes. DeSena said the town board knew the community “as well, or probably better than the people on the tree committee.'”

Robert Troiano, a Democratic councilmember, said he found DeSena’s comments “offensive.”

“The thought that ‘We know better’ says that we have no need for a hearing, because it really makes no difference,” Troiano said.

Still, Troiano voted for the amendments, citing an August 2020 incident in which a 90-foot oak tree fell on his home and tore through the roof above his bedroom. Troiano then had five trees around his home removed.

“We were not going to run the risk that any one of those trees should fall again,” he said. “I am not going to force anybody to have to run the risk that a tree that’s on their property might fall.”

By Joshua Needelman

joshua.needelman@newsday.com

Joshua Needelman covers the Town of North Hempstead for Newsday. A Long Island native and University of Maryland graduate, his work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.