I have always loved the quiet and calmness experienced while visiting cemeteries, and as a resident of Woodville have often enjoyed walks through our Evergreen Cemetery with its bounty of beautiful trees lining the roadways.
Recently, while walking into Evergreen, I was shocked and overwhelmed by coming into not a familiar verdant stand of trees guarding the gravestones but a barren landscape stretching from entrance to exit. Every tree had been removed in the older section, with small craters of sawdust marking each tree’s former location.
I had been aware that some tree trimming as well as road paving was planned but cannot understand why dozens of older but healthy trees had been so abruptly felled. Tree roots can interrupt paving, but the original roadways had been paved years ago with little effect beyond reasonable wear and tear.
It appears that decision was a hasty one based not on the aesthetic value of trees but on the overreach of a commercial project that cost the town plenty and benefited only those performing the service. That decision has left a disgraceful legacy for those who visit the cemetery to honor the interred or to simply enjoy a quiet walk among the trees.
— Warren Carter, Hopkinton
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Warren, completely agree. The selection process should not have been to just clear cut even with pavement repairs and disturbances of headstones but to try take out only what had to go, trim out and even remove roots (those continue to grow for a while) in pavement where possible. I do agree any tree disturbing a headstone (sacred ground, in my opinion) needed to be addressed, just wish it wasn’t to clear cut over 50 trees.