Gone, but not forgotten. Construction of a new housing development on Lorraine Street spelled the end for an ancient silver maple tree. The huge tree had covered the southern end of the property at 17 Lorraine St., but workers cut it down recently to make way for some new homes. 

Jill Lancaster lives in the Lorraine Street neighborhood and had hoped town officials and the property owner could find a way to preserve the silver maple. In a previous article, Lancaster spoke about how there were hardly any trees left standing in her neighborhood. 

“…it’s not just the tree, it’s everything in the tree,” Lancaster said during the earlier interview. “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.”

Barrington has 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. Town officials have also said that there is 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.” However, the town 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. 

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

In a recent email, Lancaster commented on the loss of the large silver maple tree on Lorraine Street. 

“Sadly, the big beautiful tree couldn’t be saved, it was on private property,” Lancaster wrote in an email. “I’m hoping the town tree ordinance can be updated to preserve significant trees on private property. It was a very sad day for our neighborhood when it was cut down.”