Village of East Aurora Tree Board

Village of East Aurora Tree Board The Village of East Aurora's Tree Board is over 20 years old! See what we're up to and join us as we plant and nurture as many trees as we possibly can!

We’re excited to launch our EA Village Tree of the Month contest! Each month, we’ll spotlight one special tree growing r...
06/02/2025

We’re excited to launch our EA Village Tree of the Month contest! Each month, we’ll spotlight one special tree growing right here in the Village—but we’re kicking things off with something extra special.

Thanks to our amazing friends at Borderland Music + Arts Festival, who will be giving the winners for June, July, and August a pair of General Admission weekend tickets to the festival! That’s right—your favorite tree could earn you a weekend of great music and art.

How to Enter:

Post a photo of a tree from your own yard in the comments below—front yard, back yard, wherever it may be! All trees must be located within the Village of EA.

Each month, the EA Tree Board will review submissions and select a winning tree based on beauty, uniqueness, and overall vibe.

A huge thank you to Borderland Festival for providing more than just bragging rights to help us kick off this community celebration. We can’t wait to see the trees that make our village special! 🌳🎸

Post your submissions in the comments!

Hawthorn, Winter King (Crataegus viridus) - A super tree for local early pollinators (native bees!), nice white showy fl...
05/05/2025

Hawthorn, Winter King (Crataegus viridus) - A super tree for local early pollinators (native bees!), nice white showy flowers, stays small so it'll fit where you need it...

WE HAVE A COUPLE for front yards and street trees (village only, sorry!). Who wants one? Message us here or [email protected].

Ever wonder whether all this tree talk is worth anything? Like, who cares about our trees? It's not like they pull TONS ...
05/01/2025

Ever wonder whether all this tree talk is worth anything? Like, who cares about our trees? It's not like they pull TONS of carbon out of the air every year, or filter stormwater, or boost our property values....

This is the 25th year we have planted with East Aurora High School for our Arbor Day event! A Red Oak and Tulip Poplar w...
04/30/2025

This is the 25th year we have planted with East Aurora High School for our Arbor Day event!
A Red Oak and Tulip Poplar were added by the students today 🌳
From the students, “these trees were chosen to be strong species that will welcome and be the first aspect they see as they approach our EAHS campus.”

Look what our amazing DPW rolled in with!We’ve got a few folks already waiting but it’s not too late to submit your requ...
04/17/2025

Look what our amazing DPW rolled in with!
We’ve got a few folks already waiting but it’s not too late to submit your request (as long as you’re in the village)🌳

Did you know? Every Spring East Aurora conducts a
free street tree planting in the village right-of-way!

The Village offers this planting on a first-come, first-served basis, at zero cost to the homeowner. DPW will contact utilities to mark the location of underground gas and water lines, and a member of the Tree Board or DPW will come stake our preferred location(s) for your new tree(s). All you need to do after the DPW plants them is to water them!

Current stock:

4- Red Bud
3- Purple Prince Crabapple
3- Pink Spire Crabapple
6- Service Berry
6- Flowering Native Hawthorn
2- Eastern Red Bud
2- Northern Red Oak

04/13/2025

Let's Get Planting 2025! (Or, Your Front Yard Needs You!)

Were you aware that the Village of East Aurora runs a tree planting program every Spring? If you live in the village, call the DPW or us here, NOW, and receive a FREE street tree for your front yard!

East Aurorans of all ages enjoy plentiful benefits from our street tree canopy: Street trees save us all money, increase our property values, and improve our quality of life in so many ways.

Unfortunately, these trees live a hard life (YOU get buried in salty road snow and see how you do!), including assaults by invasive bugs and utility companies. Fortunately for all of us, many years ago our Village Board added a small budget line to purchase
and plant trees every year.

Interested residents and property owners (*within village limits only, sorry!*) can request a new FREE street tree! Friendly members of your village's tree board will stop by to assess your front yard for suitable planting locations and offer suggestions for native trees that will look great all year round. In May, employees of our village DPW will plant and protect your new tree.

After that, your only responsibility is to keep our new friend watered!

This program is first-come, first-served, and supplies are limited so contact the DPW at 652-6057, message us here, or email [email protected] now with questions, thoughts, or even better, to request a new (FREE) tree.

Did I mention they're free?

Send a message to learn more

“They kinda stand here on their own, but they do need some support.”The best way to protect our trees is with your suppo...
04/08/2025

“They kinda stand here on their own, but they do need some support.”
The best way to protect our trees is with your support 🌳💪

Do you love the trees in your neighborhood? We do! In fact, we love trees in all neighborhoods. Why? Urban forests are essential to our health, happiness, we...

It doesn’t happen overnight and it takes a village 💚🌳💚
02/03/2025

It doesn’t happen overnight
and it takes a village 💚🌳💚

Hey EA -Looking for your help to send us pics of treasured and possibly historic trees in the Village 📸 We have an oppor...
01/22/2025

Hey EA -
Looking for your help to send us pics of treasured and possibly historic trees in the Village 📸
We have an opportunity to identify some trees that we are hoping to look at more carefully with NYSEG as they make their way through town - we have a few in mind, but we'd like to get your input!

11/20/2024

Let me take a few moments of your time to offer some context for the tree trimming work currently being performed in the village. These are my own thoughts and do NOT in any way represent the village of East Aurora or its officials.

First, I'd like to apologize for your Tree Board's failure to get these trees cared for in a more timely fashion - if we were able to trim and replace trees individually over the years, we would not be where we are today with a mass trimming project underway. We should have been pushing NYSEG for years to do something - burying lines, moving poles, or trimming individual trees. It was a blind spot that we regret terribly.

But... we love the trees! The last thing we wanted was to do any damage to trees that have stood for decades, and we knew we couldn't just trust NYSEG to pay an arborist to do the right thing - they're well-known for hiring lowest cost bidders and firing up chainsaws.

Unfortunately, maintaining a community canopy takes a lot of attention, and ours has been focused too much on planting new trees (over 50 per year over the last decade+) and dealing with problem trees in a reactive manner (like when a large limb falls in the middle of the street or a giant red oak needs to be removed from Hamlin Park).

Historically, many times East Aurora had planted the wrong tree species in the wrong place. Apparently few cared or understood what the result would be 40, 50 years on. We have hundreds of trees with mature heights of 50 to 100 ft, planted directly below power lines. What did our fore-folks expect would happen?

For the record, the Tree Board and village DPW try our best to NOT do this any longer. Tall trees should only be planted on open sides of the street or well "inland" of any overhead wires.

The fact is, those hundreds of trees leave the village far less resilient in the face of bad weather, changing climate, and resulting lawsuits. They impinge on NYSEG's utility poles, for which they do have a legal mandate to keep clear of vegetation (regardless of their lack of actually doing so over the years). Many of these trees require maintenance trimming or are in serious decline and need removal and replacement.

The community forest canopy is an ever-changing canvas. Trees leave us, and we are left to deal with that aftermath by planting new trees, repairing sidewalks, and so on.

All we can truly be certain about is that trees as they are today are not permanent, as much as we'd like them to be!

For this project in particular we are left with questions such as why an environmental review was not required for work of this magnitude. Any other business doing just about anything in the village needs to at least fill out some paperwork and show up to various boards. Unfortunately, we have had little luck on that!

And so, unless we can convince NYSEG to bury these utility lines at incredible, withering cost to everyone involved - not to mention the damage caused to tree roots, front yards, and disruption to our our daily lives - the overhead lines must be cleared and we are stuck working within the confines of that mandate.

We apologize for allowing the village's tree canopy to reach such a state. We are in fact working daily with the project contractor's arborist to minimize the overall impact, give the trees their best chance at continued survival, and to do something meaningful with the wood that is removed - more to come on that as the plan gets finalized. We'll work with village hall and our fine DPW to replace as many trees as we can - with the right trees going in the right places!

It is gut-wrenching to see. It's horrible to live through! We volunteer a lot of our free time for the betterment of the trees and it's killing us to see! Because of the harsh results we see now we will likely lose members of our board. If you're interested in doing the work to keep an eye on the village canopy and help it recover and grow into a better future, please contact us and join us!

Jesse Griffis
Tree Board chair

Send a message to learn more

A truly unique and interesting tree species - Does anyone know of any osage orange trees in the village?? Orchard Park's...
11/13/2024

A truly unique and interesting tree species - Does anyone know of any osage orange trees in the village?? Orchard Park's garden club is interested in finding as many as they can for a Christmas ornament they put together.

I saw fruit from a vendor at the Farmers' Market last Saturday...

Maclura pomifera, commonly known as the Osage orange (/ˈoʊseɪdʒ/ OH-sayj), is a small deciduous tree or large shrub, native to the south-central United States. It typically grows about 8 to 15 metres (30–50 ft) tall. The distinctive fruit, a multiple fruit, is roughly spherical, bumpy, 8 to...

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East Aurora, NY

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