Professor emeritus to give talk on Urban Forestry Project
Community volunteers for the tree inventory
Tom Denny, professor emeritus of music and a community volunteer who is heading up
Sustainable Saratoga’s Urban Forestry Project, will give a presentation titled “Saratoga’s
Trees: Past, Present, and Future” at Skidmore on Wednesday, Jan. 30, at 5:30 p.m.
in Davis Auditorium of Palamountain Hall.
The talk will place the recently completed inventory of Saratoga Springs street and
park trees into a broader context of the city’s history, current policies, and future
plans. Archival photographs will illustrate how the famous elms and other trees shaped
Saratoga’s historic ambience. Current photographs and inventory data will frame discussion
of the role trees could play in building a sustainable future for the city.
Sustainable Saratoga produced the inventory as an in-kind donation to the city. Over
125 local volunteers assisted Sustainable Saratoga’s forestry professionals during
the three-year inventory project. The inventory will provide data for the city’s Urban
Forest Master Plan, to be formulated this spring, with funding from a New York State
DEC urban forestry grant.
“Trees, along with other green infrastructure, are increasingly recognized as cost-effective
pieces of the urban infrastructure. The benefits of trees are widely documented,”
said Denny. He cited such benefits as energy savings, positive impact on retail and
restaurant profitability, filtering of air and storm water pollution, removal of greenhouse
gases from the atmosphere, and increased real estate values. “Not to mention the sheer
beauty of the trees, perhaps the single most defining feature of a gracious, pedestrian-friendly,
complete street design,” added Denny.
Said Denny, “From the inventory analysis we learned that Saratoga’s street trees provide
the city with benefits worth over $1 million a year, while DPW’s budget for trees
is around $125,000. That kind of return on investment tells me that the urban forest
should be a serious part of all infrastructure planning.”
The presentation is co-sponsored by Sustainable Saratoga, the Environmental Studies
Program at Skidmore, and the college’s Sustainable Skidmore program.
Sustainable Saratoga is a local not-for-profit advocacy group. Since its founding
five years ago, it has promoted sustainable practices and the protection of natural
resources for the benefit of current and future generations in the Saratoga Springs
area. Its current major projects include urban forestry, renewable energy, and housing
and urban planning.