Letters

Fifteen years ago, needing landscaping materials for my newly purchased home, I attended a plant nursery auction at the Elks fairgrounds, where I found myself bidding on unfamiliar plants, including a 6-foot European beech.

Unsure of what I had bought, I hired arborist Bill Clark, who rightly went by the commercial moniker “The Hampton Tree Expert.” Bill said I should look at the ancient European beech tree, at the west end of Hill Street, to see what I had bought.

He opined that it was the most beautiful tree in Southampton. But he lamented that it was poorly treated, saying he’d begged the village highway supervisor to protect it from road salt runoff, but that the village did not care.

Now, the Shinnecock Nation’s campfire vigil, protesting National Grid’s construction work near the tree, and its designation as a “heritage tree,” have focused needed attention. Unfortunately, these efforts miss the mark, both as to the danger and, possibly, its historic importance.

Bill told me a story that I have been unable to confirm. He said that several hundred years ago, a sailing ship bound for the city foundered off East Hampton, running to the beach. Aboard the ship were horticultural samples of plants not native to North America, including 17 potted European beech seedlings.

The cargo was salvaged. Someone put the trees in a wagon, planting them along what is now Montauk Highway — the westernmost tree being ours. This string of European beech made it an iconic “Hamptons” tree. Bill said five of the 17 are still alive.

It’s a great tale, if true. But, regardless of the history, the tree is fabulous and should be protected.

Ironically, the true danger probably does not come from the construction work; it is from a newly emerging disease called beech leaf disease, or BLD, an infestation that more often than not kills beech trees. Despite the sudden recognition of the importance of the Hill Street beech (and many articles about the local spread of BLD), no one seems to have connected this tree-killer to the tree.

Which brings me back to my now 40-foot-tall beech, growing only a quarter mile from the one on Hill Street. Like half of the beech trees in the Hamptons, mine is infected with BLD. I have spent thousands on treatments, in hopes of saving it. Fingers crossed.

Unfortunately, the recent governmental designations and vigil will not protect the Hill Street tree from BLD. The village needs to get an arborist in to treat it, fertilize it and prune out infected branches.

And while we are at it, install drainage culverts to protect it from road salt — the way Bill Clark suggested 15 years ago.

James Sandnes

Southampton