Residents Organize Against Tree Cutting

Residents concerned about the removal of neighborhood trees met at the Shamokin YMCA on June 3, 1976. The Daily Item reported that petitions were being circulated against cutting at the city's high-rise and in the Bunker Hill renewal area. The group hoped to obtain more than one thousand signatures for the June 14 City Council meeting. If council did not stop the work, residents said they would ask attorney Roger V. Wiest to seek an injunction.

Floyd B. Carey, executive director of the city's housing and redevelopment authorities, attended the meeting and defended the removals. He said some roots interfered with new curbing or lifted existing sidewalks, while other trees were dead or dying. According to Carey, the contractor had agreed to concentrate on trees blocking sidewalks, but the authorities had not voted to halt cutting.

The work involved two administrative settings. The Housing Authority had funded and supervised removals at the high-rise; the Redevelopment Authority was coordinating the Bunker Hill work. The article reported continued cutting on Dewart, Orange, and Liberty Streets while the group met. The controversy extended across these settings without making them one interchangeable project.

Residents challenged both the loss of mature trees and the way information had reached the neighborhood. Mr. and Mrs. David Shade, Margaret Davis, and Mrs. Frank Knutti were among those backing the effort. Knutti described the distress of elderly high-rise residents watching trees removed. The group also questioned whether replacement saplings might eventually create new problems for the curbs and sidewalks.

Carey promised at least one replacement for every tree cut and described sugar maples six to eight feet tall. He acknowledged that the number of trees could be restored without restoring their size, and reported an engineer's expectation that the new trees would provide shade in five to seven years. For the residents, that interval mattered. The dispute was about the difference between a promised future streetscape and the mature shade people already knew.