…it’s not just the tree, it’s everything in the tree. It’s the whole ecosystem around this tree. It’s whatever’s under the ground. All the birds that live here.”

Jill Lancaster

It breaks her heart.

The thought of workers cutting down the huge hundred-year-old maple tree on Lorraine Street breaks Jill Lancaster’s heart. 

Staring up at its web of branches as its dark red buds are beginning to sprout, Lancaster feels terrible that a developer plans to remove the massive tree and replace it with a two-family house. 

One less tree. 

One more house. 

“Look at all these birds… this tree’s lived here for over 100 years,” she said. “It’s beautiful in the summer. The leaves. It’s still growing. It’s not a dead tree.”

The big silver maple covers the south end of the 17 Lorraine St. property. The land is being subdivided into three lots: Currently there is a three-story tower located on the north end of the 15,687-square-foot parcel; a large, vacant multi-unit apartment house fills the middle section of the property; and the maple — as wide as it is tall — covers the rest of the land. 

The builder aims to leave the tower, raze the apartment building, and cut down the maple. The plan calls for the construction of a two-family home to the south and a single-family house in the middle lot.

Lancaster lives a few houses south on Lorraine Street. She has attended Barrington Planning Board meetings and pleaded with officials to find a plan that would spare the tree. 

“Oh, gosh, I’m like, ‘Can’t we save the tree somehow?’ You can take this out,” she said, pointing to the dilapidated multi-unit building, “and put a beautiful home here. They even say in the town legislation, they say trees add value to property.

“When I looked at the plans… they took all the trees, there’s no trees…”

Barrington recently established a tree inventory program that maps out the estimated 8,000 town trees located along Barrington’s 458 streets. The goal of the program is to create an ongoing urban forestry tree inventory for all town-owned property in Barrington. 

There is also an existing ordinance that regulates the protection, maintenance, removal and planting of trees “in and along public streets, rights-of-ways and other public places.”

But, as Lancaster learned recently, Barrington does not have any existing legislation that protects trees on privately-owned property. Barrington’s ordinances only protect trees that stand within the public right-of-way, which is 40 feet across the road. 

Lancaster said other towns have created laws protecting trees on private property. She believes that type of ordinance could save the big maple in her neighborhood. 

“The first time I brought it up in a meeting, I know my neighbors on that side (of Lorraine Street) and this side, they were like ‘We don’t have any trees on our street.’”

Lancaster and her neighbors have very few trees to throw shade in the summer months and block the howling winds in the winter. There are just a few trees still standing on Lorraine Street. The oldest is the big silver maple tagged for removal. 

Lancaster has tried different ways to save the tree. She said she approached the developer and asked if a different plan — one that preserved the tree — might be possible. Lancaster said the developer was not interested. 

She also pleaded with the Planning Board. Some members approached sympathetic to her plight, Lancaster said, but they were powerless when it came to ensuring that the tree be saved. 

She has even started documenting which types of birds are nesting in the maple tree. Lancaster has compiled a list that includes more than a half-dozen different species. 

“If I can find an endangered species bird here, I might be able to save the tree,” Lancaster said. “…it’s not just the tree, it’s everything in the tree. It’s the whole ecosystem around this tree. It’s whatever’s under the ground. All the birds that live here. The moss on the tree.”

For years, Lancaster has appreciated the tree’s contributions to her neighborhood: much-needed shade in the warm summer months; the song-filled mornings and early evenings provided by the birds in its branches; the tiny pocket of natural open space interrupting an ever-growing sea of houses in Barrington. (A short drive from Lorraine Street, town officials have plans to fill another open lot, the Carmelite monastery property, with more than 30 housing units.)

“It’s all about money,” Lancaster said. “Just the way the world’s going. Even if I’m just saving one tree, it’s something.”

A few months ago, Lancaster watched as another nearby property owner cut down a small stand of healthy trees on Talcott Street to make room for an addition. Rooflines, shingles, siding and a driveway now fill that space. 

Lancaster said the trees had been located close to the edge of the road. 

“That’s town-owned property. People just can’t chop down town property trees,” she said. “Unfortunately, that happened on Talcott.”

Lancaster said she is trying to preserve two other trees on the 17 Lorraine St. property. They are located along in front of the existing apartment building — one is a deciduous tree and the other is an evergreen. Lancaster has alerted Barrington Town Planner Teresa Crean to the fact that both trees rest on town property and the developer does not have the right to remove them.

Crean wrote in response: “The Town is looking into the trees along Lorraine Street in order to confirm which trees are town-owned and which trees are private. It appears one or two trees along the road are town-owned, and are not included on the plans that were submitted for Master Plan approval. Please note that the Applicant is required to request Town approval for removal of those trees. We will be discussing this internally and possibly with the Conservation Commission/Tree Commission for the development once the landscape plan is submitted showing proposed tree removal.”

Lancaster would like Barrington residents to speak up and alert the town if they suspect a town tree is going to be cut down without town approval. 

“It’s just bringing awareness,” she said. “Firstly, people need to know that there are trees on public rights of way. You can’t just chop down any tree that might be close to the road or if there’s an easement.”

Lancaster said her ultimate goal is to see the laws changed so that trees on private property — those like the massive maple at 17 Lorraine St. — can be preserved. That effort, she said, would bring about a better, greener, healthier and more beautiful Barrington. 

“If we could protect trees like this, on private property, that would be my dream,” Lancaster said.