The Albany County city of Cohoes marked Earth Day with a tree planting.
Cohoes high school students and members of community support organization Capital Roots planted 100 trees along the median of Cohoes Boulevard in the roughly mile-and-a-half stretch between Tibbits and Bridge Aves. Mayor Bill Keeler says it was time to turn over a new leaf in the Spindle City.
“It’s something we've been talking about with Capital Roots for a couple of years, because when they did this Boulevard project a number of years ago, the trees that they planted weren't suitable for the for the soil type. So the majority of them died, so they were removed. So the idea today is that we're going to replace all those, and no better day to do that than Earth Day,” Keeler said.
Varieties of trees going in include swamp white oak, Freeman maple, Amur maackia, and two kinds of crabapple.
State Assemblyman John McDonald, a Democrat whose 108th District includes the city, says he has fond memories of the first planting, undertaken during his tenure as mayor.
“To this day, there are students, many students, because we've done many tree plantings here that have moved on with their lives and interesting enough, they'll shoot an email once in a while, you'll run into them in the community and say, you know, ‘Mr. McDonald, I remember when we planted those trees up at West End Park, when we planted those trees in downtown Cohoes,’ or wherever it may be,” McDonald said.
Students invited to participate are members of the Cohoes chapter of the National Honor Society. Karena Ramos is a senior and the chapter’s vice president. She says she was happy to be outside and helping her community, adding she’s also learning life skills.
“It’s a little good background into like how to plant a tree, just in case in the future, I want to decorate my own backyard, and it's a good way to have some knowledge of that,” Ramos said.
Ramos says she was aiming to do a tenth of the project all by herself.
“I am very determined, and I'm willing to work hard, so I'd say, if I could maybe 10,” Ramos said.
Brian Adams is Urban Forestry Manager with Capital Roots. Overseeing the project, he says the planting is supported by a U.S. Forest Service grant through the Inflation Reduction Act, and adds projects like this are especially important to preventing runoff and other pollution from entering waterways, like the Hudson River.
“They'll take particulates out of the air, which is great along these boulevards high traffic areas. They'll reduce pollution through the ground water. They're also great for reducing energy costs in that they provide shade in the summertime and the wind breaks in the winter, both reducing heating and cooling costs,” Adams said.
Capital Roots also hopes to carry out similar projects in Menands, Green Island, Watervliet, Rensselaer, and Troy, all with the end goal of increasing the municipalities’ tree cover and keeping pollution out of water sources.
Capital Roots has been a WAMC underwriter.
