Station Road Civic Association

LIRR Tree Cutting (Follow-up)

Queens Chronicle - LIRR Tree Cutting (9/21/07)

Following community opposition, work has stopped on clear cutting of trees along the Long Island Rail Road at the Broadway-Flushing station.
The sight of the 150-foot area already denuded of trees angered local residents and has LIRR officials seeking a more acceptable approach to track safety.

According to LIRR spokesman Sam Zambuto, the clear cutting came about because of safety issues arising from a slip-slide effect of leaves on the tracks for the new M-7 trains, and the need for a high security fence to be built to keep unauthorized people from entering the tracks.
“I just stumbled on this mess one morning,” said Rhea O’Gorman, president of the Station Road Civic Association. She met with officials from the LIRR on Sept. 11.
“In keeping with the general tenor of the day, it was hideous,” she said. “It’s hard enough for small animals and birds to survive in the city and now their habitat has been decimated.”
Community members were under the impression that the new fence came as a result of concerns from the Department of Homeland Security. However, Zambuto said that while Homeland Security is one of the agencies the LIRR deals with, the decision to build the high security fence was made by the LIRR Fence Task Force.
“One problem, in particular, for our trains is caused by blowing, scattered and crushed leaves during the fall,” Zambuto said. The leaves create an oily residue on the tracks, resulting in wheel slip-slide conditions (similar to driving on an icy road) that may impact keeping train service reliable.
Although Zambuto wouldn’t confirm it, the problem appears to have gotten worse with the introduction of the new trains over the last few years.
Because of that, the LIRR had planned to eventually cut down all the trees, leaving the stumps, along the railroad’s right-of-way from Flushing to Port Washington, L.I.?Ÿ
To the dismay of Little Neck resident Eileen Kelly, additional clearing has taken place on the north side of the Little Neck station.
“On our side of the track they cleared away the struggling wisps of trees that have only recently grown back after the time they clear cut and then put down defoliant 10 years ago. On the south side they left a lush canopy of large trees overhanging the track. They’re very inconsistent, in fact, it’s down right contradictory,” Kelly said.
Kelly has been fighting for over a year about the increased noise caused by trains entering the Little Neck station, which has gotten worse because of new federal safety requirements. Without trees to muffle the sound, the problem is likely to become even more pronounced.
Chrissy Voskerichian, vice president of the Station Road Civic, added that LIRR official Bob Brennan told civic members that scientifically more leaves blow from north to south because of prevailing winds in New York, something that she found hard to believe.
She went on, “Given all these problems with slipping, which I’d never heard of before the new trains, I’d say it’s 97 percent sure that they bought the wrong trains.”
The LIRR denies that there is a problem with the trains, saying that they were designed for the LIRR and that the slip-slide problem exists anywhere in the world where trains run through areas of thick, deciduous forest. “They work just fine most of the time,” Zambuto said.
If the LIRR carries out its original plan, all trees on both sides of the track east of the Broadway station will be cut. Additional trees along the fence line will be removed to accommodate the 425-foot high security fence.
Voskerichian told Brennan that the fence on both sides of the track to the east of the pedestrian bridge was falling down. “It’s like installing an alarm system and then leaving the front door open.”
She understands the need for security, but that killing trees was not the only way it could be accomplished. “This is terrible. It’s ugly, it’s destroying the habitat of the birds who use the trees. It goes against (the mayor’s) PlaNYC 2030.”
Among issues of importance to the civic is erosion following the clear cutting of the steep embankment and the loss of the buffer for noise the trees provide.
She suggested that while other solutions may take more time and money, they are more sustainable in the long run and will work better.
State Sen. Frank Padavan, and Assemblyman Rory Lancman have lent their support to the civic’s concerns.
“Our plan is to explore working with the civic association and the NYC DOT to plant track-friendly evergreens along the outside of the fence,” Zambuto said.