Tree Board
Tree problems or concerns, including trimming or removal, may be reported to the DPW with SeeClickFix or the Clerk's Office during business hours.
Perry encourages the planting and maintenance of a variety of trees along streets as well as in private plantings to enhance the natural beauty of the village.
Perry is a "Tree City!"
Watch the video Village of Perry Tree Board | What is a Tree City? on Facebook or YouTube!
Video credit: Jules Hoepting of Letchworth Community Access.*NEW: Map of Sidewalk Tree Trails
Trees & Tree Law
Trees contribute to the community's quality of life, property values, wildlife, and business attractiveness.
They provide many benefits to homeowners including shade and dampening of sound and wind.
In the Spring of 2017, the Board of Trustees adopted a Tree Law for the village. In 2023, the Tree Board Master Plan was revised.
The Tree Law established the Village of Perry Tree Board as an advisory committee and as well as tree regulations for the village.
The first meetings of the Tree Board Advisory Committee included conversations about trees remembered in the village, special trees on street terraces and yards, and beautiful tree-lined streets in the area and beyond. That was just the beginning.
What about the tree issues of the village, such as key-holed trees for power lines, sidewalk damage, and vacant street-sides where trees used to be. It was quickly realized that the work at hand was more complex than just advocating to protect current trees.
Should the village remove a huge deformed but healthy Y-shaped tree if it is providing much more shade, noise damping, and wildlife refuge than a small ornamental under the power line?
Should we aim for a uniform tree-lined avenue look if it means a lot of cutting and replanting? Would it be better to focus on filling gaps? Should the village adopt a more autocratic approach to managing the right-of-way, or primarily execute preferences expressed by individual property owners? Is the job primarily to implement regulations or to manage the "urban forest?" Where will funding come from—tax money? Grants? The board decided that a survey of residents was in order to help answer some of the new questions. An article summarizing the survey project and results is included below.
Beat the Summer Heat with Trees
“Communities with too few trees are feeling the consequences this summer, as a heat wave has swept through much of the Pacific Northwest,” as well as the East and Northeast, according to a July 4, 2021, New York Times article titled “Since When Have Trees Existed Only for Rich Americans?”
“The average temperature can vary up to 10 degrees between places with trees and those without,” the article states. “And where there is heat, there is more death: Heat kills more people in the United States than any other kind of extreme weather.”
According to the article, trees we do have in the U.S. have prevented approximately 1,200 heat-related deaths annually in American cities. (The article doesn’t provide a source for that statistic.)
Living in areas with adequate tree canopy offers many other benefits: “Healthy trees trap air pollutants, which helps avoid 670,000 incidences of acute respiratory symptoms each year.” Additionally, being surrounded by trees has been found to “improve youth educational performance, mental health, physical health and social connections.”
Given these many benefits, including beautification, Perry residents will want to support the Village Tree Board’s efforts to plant 50 trees a year.
Additional Tree Resources
- Tree Pruning Handout
- Tree Gift Policy
- 2020 PoeTREE book, created in conjunction with Perry Central Schools.
- Street Tree List 2021
- Guidance for choosing your own trees
- Tree Survey Article
- 2019 Tree Inventory Summary
- Trees and Temperature
- Trees Make a Better World
Team
- Daniel Zerbe, Chairperson
- Ralph Field, Member
- Felisa McKay, Member
- Robin Redding, Member
- James Reynolds, Member
- Jules Hoepting, Member
- Sandy Lawrence, Member
- Joel Bouchard, Village Trustee
- Steve Deaton, Village Superintendent of DPW
