The Village of Hempstead recently teamed up with Nassau County to plant 100 “wire-friendly” trees as part of the village’s ongoing revitalization effort. The cost of the planting was offset in part by a reimbursement of about $5,000 from the Long Island Power Authority.

“I am delighted to be working with the Village of Hempstead on this project,” said Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi in a statement about the initiative. “Not only will these trees beautify the Village of Hempstead, but they will reduce greenhouse gases, storm-water runoff and soil erosion, and serve as a habitat for wildlife once they are planted. The planting of trees and improving streetscapes are two of the first steps we can take to make Nassau County sustainable by 2020.”

LIPA has long offered reimbursements to municipalities for planting trees that won’t grow tall enough to hit the authority’s electric wires. According to LIPA, 90 percent of all electric service interruptions result from tree or tree limb contact with overhead electric lines. LIPA said it spends more than $14 million a year on its line-clearing efforts and wire-friendly-tree program, which promotes the use of trees that will have a less adverse impact on Long Island’s electric wires, poles, and other components.  

The Hempstead wire-friendly project encompasses an area beginning at South Franklin St. and continuing south to President St. and the wide center median of Peninsula Blvd., providing enough open space to plant large shade trees. In areas where the median narrows or there are underground utilities, smaller ornamental trees were planted.

In addition to the 100 wire-friendly trees, Hempstead also recently planted 60 crimson and red maple trees for village residents, to replace old ones that were either blown over in a storm, too old, or rotted out, said Dan Simone, acting superintendent of the village’s Department of Public Works. Simone said the village replaced 60 trees last year and 100 in 2005 in front of residents’ homes at their request, at no cost to the homeowners. The trees, which are kept trim by the village, are chosen in part because their roots grow down and don’t lift up sidewalks, Simone said.

Other towns participating in the wire-friendly planting program include the Town of Oyster Bay, the Village of Floral Park, which has been designated a Tree City, U.S.A., and the Town of Hempstead. LIPA announced in April that its wire-friendly initiative helped it receive the Tree Line U.S.A. Award for the ninth consecutive year. The award, sponsored by the National Arbor Day Foundation in cooperation with the National Association of State Foresters, recognizes public and private utilities utilizing tree-friendly practices that protect and enhance America’s urban forests.

 

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Best Street Trees
Here is a list of wire-friendly trees to consider planting along your curb.

 

• Accolade flowering cherry (disease-resistant cultivars only)
• Acer ginnala
• Acer campestre
• Acer buergeranum
• Acer tataricum
• Acer truncatum
• Amelanchier ‘Autumn
• Sunset’, ‘Cumulus’, ‘Robin Hill Pink’
• American hornbeam
• Amur maackia
• Amur maple
• Canada red cherry
• Callery pear (not Bradford)
• Carpinus caroliniana
• Cornus kousa
• Crataegus cruz-galli ‘Inermis’
• Flowering crabapple (disease-resistant cultivars only)
• Goldenrain tree
• Hedge maple
• Japanese tree lilac
• Koelreuteria paniculata
• Kousa dogwood
• Maackia amurensis
• Malus spp.
• Prunus spp. ‘Accolade’
• Prunus virginiana ‘Canada Red’
• Pyrus calleryana ‘Chanticleer’, ‘Aristocrat’, ‘Capital’, ‘Whitehorse’
• Tatarian maple
• Thornless cockspur hawthorne
• Trident maple
• Serviceberry
• Shantung maple
• Syringa reticulata