Trees create habitat for wildlife, control stormwater and erosion, provide a visual screen, block noise, increase property values ... and they are being cut down all over Westchester County.

Tree cutting near power lines in PleasantvillleAfter falling tress in Ohio led to the East Coast blackout of 2003, the New York State Public Service Commission, which regulates New York's utilities, implemented strict guidelines for clearing vegetation near transmission lines.

For the last three years, Con Ed's tree cutting program has had Westchester residents seeing red (rather than the usual green). In various municipalities, wooded areas -- which once protected homes from the noise and sight of busy roadways -- were taken down. Both hundred-year-old trees near parks and recently planted trees that were supposed to provide a buffer near the rail-train are gone.

Last week, the Westchester County Board of Legislators unanimously passed a moratorium resolution and sent an accompanying letter, asking the state Public Service Commission to review its cutting regulations and requesting Con Ed immediately implement the moratorium on the tree-cutting program until such a review takes place. Despite this action, no changes have been made.

Legislator Peter Harckham, who chairs the Board of Legislators' Environmental Committee, called the cutting policy "scorched earth," adding that Con Ed should "look at another approach that balances protecting the grid and replanting trees."

Con Ed, however, says the tree-cutting program is key to service continuity -- tree trimming kept power outages caused by recent snowstorms from being two or three times worse, company officials told the Journal News.

The Greenburgh Environmental Forum's Lorax working group is a community organization, which has been fighting to stop the tree-cutting program and, is the sponsor of an online petition in support of the moratorium resolution.

To learn more, check out the Irvington Tree Preservation Project Blog and the Hudson Independent.