The following was submitted as a letter to the editor of the Ridgewood News before the deadline last week, but was not published. It contains important updates.
Sycamore article used old news
To the Editor:
The impending removal of the iconic sycamore tree in Graydon Park deserved its front-page coverage (“Tree’s decades-long watch almost over,” Feb. 16). It also deserved real reporting.
In reproducing my emailed comments, reporters Nicholas Katzban and Linda Voorhis imply that they interviewed me online. No such contact was made. I’d sent the quoted email to the Record’s environmental reporter a full month earlier in hopes of inspiring a story. It worked, if belatedly and indirectly. But a lot has happened since January 18.
The authors quote me as stating that I hoped the tree could be saved. That was no longer true once I’d obtained a copy of a report by an outside expert hired to evaluate the tree.
I am quoted as wishing that seeds from the tree had been saved. This is being done. With the approval of Ridgewood’s Parks and Recreation Department, a local environmentalist will germinate seeds from the sycamore toward creating a new generation. Perhaps one seedling will grow large enough to replace its mother tree.
Other news: uses for the wood are being explored by the mayor’s new Ad Hoc Graydon Sycamore Committee.
The “fans” who saved Graydon from being concretized have a name: The Preserve Graydon Coalition. It was the Coalition, formed in July 2009, that had Graydon placed on Preservation New Jersey’s 2010 list of the 10 most endangered historic sites in the state. Grassroots efforts take a village, and this village really stepped up.
Marcia Ringel
Co-Founder, The Preserve Graydon Coalition
Ridgewood
Feb. 20, 2018
