March 21
...serving up your daily dish.
We thought the baseball-field-building-and-tree-chopping controversy at Woodman Field was over, but an angry Montclair defender of tree rights is determined to keep 30 of them, many over 100 years old, off death row. "The trees along Champlain Terrace are slated for murder to enlarge the baseball field and will be replaced by a very high fence," he wrote in an email to members of grass roots organization Montclair Trees. "To avert this horror we will need a large turn-out, and some speakers." Murder? Maybe not, but supporters are being asked to speak out against arboreal annihilation tomorrow night, March 22, at The Board of School Estimates meeting, 7:30 PM. The Board of Education, 22 Valley Road. Contact Montclairtrees@aol.com for more information.
March 21, 2006 in Controversy | Permalink
"murder" oy vey. The shrieking, the shrieking!
Please let me know when people start chaining themsleves to trees.
Posted by: Right of Center™ | Mar 21, 2006 12:48:20 PM
Does ROC plan to appear with a chain cutter???
I suppose the removal of those lovely trees is designed to harmonize the neighborhood with the Crisco corner, huh?
Posted by: Byron | Mar 21, 2006 12:53:34 PM
Oh Goody !! More lumber source for more McMansions !! ..must ..have...food
Posted by: Crisco McMansion | Mar 21, 2006 12:57:05 PM
How can Montclair Trees be a grass roots organization? Shouldn't it be "tree roots"?
Personally, I like trees better than baseball diamonds.
Posted by: Miss Martta | Mar 21, 2006 1:01:45 PM
No Byron, I don't necessarily think the trees should be cut down, but neither would I call it "murder". And the "small" part of my character would enjoy the "Street theater" of grown adults in the midst of of a tree-hugging tantrum, so I will be there, should there be a "confrontation".
As bad_patty says those are "our" trees and I suppose "we" get to decide their disposition.
There seems to be a lot of room, so I am not sure why they need to be cut down.
Posted by: Right of Center™ | Mar 21, 2006 1:03:43 PM
Maybe they can call the new baseball complex "Field of Stumps".
Posted by: Crisco McMansion | Mar 21, 2006 1:04:20 PM
Perhaps we should organize the little league kids to come out for a counter demonstration. After all, if the baseball field doesn't get expanded, the kids won't have a place to play, and they'll turn to drugs and drink and ruin, and violent crime and... lives will lost! Why, that's tantamount to MURDER!!!!!!!
Posted by: walleroo | Mar 21, 2006 1:04:29 PM
walleroo, I'd suggest cardboard coffins, draped with flags emblazoned with the new(ish) Montclair logo.
Line them all up (by the score) and chant "No Blood for Nimbyism".
Posted by: Right of Center™ | Mar 21, 2006 1:09:25 PM
Maybe the town can make and sell special edition baseball bats out of the felled trees. They are looking for new revenue streams, right?
Posted by: Aussiebookguy | Mar 21, 2006 1:11:06 PM
Aussie,
Good idea but I doubt such an idea would get through carya's "Sustainable Preservation of Dead Tree and Sawdust Committee".
Posted by: Right of Center™ | Mar 21, 2006 1:14:13 PM
walleroo, if you think little leaguers or any other non-high school team will be allowed anywhere near those fields, you don't know Montclair athletic field rules.
Posted by: BeanCounter | Mar 21, 2006 1:30:35 PM
Bean,
Does the highschool team do all their practicing there currently?
Posted by: Right of Center™ | Mar 21, 2006 1:37:32 PM
Can I have Mazie handcuff me to a tree...I've been a bad boy
Posted by: Iceman | Mar 21, 2006 1:40:19 PM
You know wallerro, they don't have a baseball field at Glenfield Middle School, I think that should be your line of attack.
Posted by: Right of Center™ | Mar 21, 2006 1:44:07 PM
ROC, I don't have any knowledge as to where the high school teams currently practice. I do know, however, that the town and traveling teams for all sports were never allowed to use the high school fields.
Posted by: BeanCounter | Mar 21, 2006 1:47:11 PM
Yes, but perhaps they are using other facilities which might therefore be "freed-up"?
Posted by: Right of Center™ | Mar 21, 2006 1:55:13 PM
"Perhaps we should organize the little league kids to come out for a counter demonstration."
If you've been following the Watercooler discussion, you'd know that a majority of the baseball parents involved are said to oppose the plan. For a different angle on the site check out:
http://ecorealty.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Woody | Mar 21, 2006 2:06:15 PM
"Don't it always seem to go that they don't know what they got till its gone! paved paradise and put a parking lot"
Arbor Day is April 28th.
Posted by: JetersGirl | Mar 21, 2006 2:09:30 PM
town-league baseball practices and plays at woodman and fortunato.
Cobra football plays at woodman
Montclair United Soccer plays at fortunato
Posted by: mtc | Mar 21, 2006 2:23:14 PM
RoC,
Yes those are our trees (collectively)- show up and be counted. I'm sure that all would appreciate your opinion - in person of course.
Ice,
Wouldn't a hair-shirt or flagellation suit you better. I think that Mazie could be arrested for handcuffing you to town property- not sure what the charge would be.
Posted by: badd_patti | Mar 21, 2006 2:23:59 PM
