Canton's forest management plan to be discussed

May 11—CANTON — Miguel Berrios of Land Beyond the Sea Ecological Design will present a community forest management plan this week completed for the village of Canton.

The presentation will begin at 6 p.m. Thursday. Members of the public may attend in the courtroom at the municipal building, 60 Main St., where Mr. Berrios will be attending via Zoom. The public can also access a Zoom stream of the meeting at www.cantonny.gov.

The plan addresses tree maintenance, response to the emerald ash borer infestation, improving practices for new tree plantings and planting plans for the village.

A copy of the plan can be viewed at wdt.me/yfCyRf.

This is the village's second community forest management plan. The first was completed in 1999 to address the damage done by the 1998 ice storm.

Work on this plan began in 2015, when the village received a state Department of Environmental Conservation Urban and Community Forestry Grant to complete a tree inventory of the village. The inventory was completed in 2016 and updated in 2018.

In 2020, the village received a DEC Urban and Community Forestry Grant to complete a community forest management plan for which the village put out a request for proposals to solicit work. The village hired Land Beyond the Sea to inventory risk trees in the village and assist in developing the village's management plan.

A tree survey conducted in 2021 determined that the village has 859 trees that cover 6.8 acres. The most common species are sugar maple, apple and white ash. The percentage of trees in Canton that are less than 6 inches in diameter is 35.5%. The trees in Canton remove 246.9 pounds of pollution each year, store 531.5 tons of carbon and produce 11.69 tons of oxygen each year.

For more information, contact Leigh Rodriguez, director of economic development at lrodriguez@cantonny.gov.