Joyce Lannert is surely not the only River Towns dweller concerned about invasive vines smothering and strangling the trees in our area, but she is one of few to have taken action on the subject. “When you go up the highways, the Saw Mill, the Taconic, you see masses of lumps where trees used to be,” she says. “They’ve been entirely invaded by these vines. And they’re killing the trees. So our lovely parkways and highways, which have been carefully landscaped, are going to lose all that and when they’re finally finished, it’s going to look awful.”
Lannert also has a second, complementary concern. “This state markets itself as ‘Come to New York in the fall, for the fall color.’ Well, you don’t see fall color when the trees are covered by vines. And that’s going to affect us economically as well, if we can’t market ourselves as the place to come and see the beautiful color surge in the fall.”
With both general and specific concerns in mind, Lannert decided to try taking matters into her own hands to bring about change. Particularly unhappy about the alley of sycamores along Route 9 bordering Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, which now have vines growing up them, she approached the cemetery authorities about stripping the unwanted growth away. But she was told that trees outside the cemetery walls were not the cemetery’s responsibility, rather the state’s. So she turned her attention in that direction, addressing the New York State Department of Transportation via the acting director, the assistant to the regional director and regional maintenance.
“To the Guardians of our trees on our public highways,” she began her letter, “I’m speaking particularly of the majestic American Sycamores along that part of Route 9 bordering Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, NY, and designated as a scenic byway.”
She pointed out how the trees were being attacked by a “noxious ivy,” predicting their eventual decay into “hunched green things, unidentifiable as trees,” like the ones along many of our highways. “These Sleepy Hollow Sycamores lend a particular elegance to the historic sites they border: Philipsburg; the Old Dutch Church and its cemetery; the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery – all on the National Register of Historic Places.”
Referring to the many visitors who come to our area, especially during Halloween, she acknowledged the financial problems surrounding vine control. “The vines need to be eliminated, not just trimmed… I’m sure your budget won’t support cutting them down annually.”
She also copied in the cemetery, knowing they had reached out to the DOT themselves.
But no answers have come.
Frustrated at the silence, Lannert is now pondering her next move. Persistence can pay off and as well as a follow-up she’s considering widening her approach to include the tourism board.
But as the climate shifts and non-native invasions become more frequent – hello, spotted lantern flies – it will take some major focus, and probably funding, to attack and defeat the flora and fauna hoppers coming our way. We are going to need more Joyce Lannerts taking the initiative. How about you?
