Long Island woman chains herself to 80-year-old Oak tree in attempt to sway village's decision to remove it
WESTBURY, N.Y. -- A Long Island woman has chained herself to a tree for four days and counting.
She's trying to stop the planned removal of a large Oak in the village of Westbury. As CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff reported Monday, it's not technically on her property, but it is a part of her history.
"I'm saving the tree. It has been in my family for four generations," said Denise Casares of Westbury.
Casares has gone way out limb to save a beloved Oak in front of her house. It is slated for removal in a road-resurfacing project.
"I came running out the door like a crazy person and said, 'What are you doing?' He made a motion like it's coming down and I said, 'No, it's not,'" Casares said.
Casares is now chained to the 80-year-old tree 10 hours per day in front of the house her grandparents built in the 1950s. She said it's about, well, roots.
"It means something to me. I don't want to lose something else that has been part of my family the entire lifetime that my family has been here, and I feel like there is just a total disregard," Casares said.
The mother and Girl Scout leader said she is teaching her kids a lesson in standing on principle.
"If a tree is unhealthy and unsafe, I understand that, but to take a perfectly healthy tree and just take it down like it's nothing, I don't understand," Casares said.
"I'm very proud of her. It's a very courageous thing to do," daughter Madison Casares said.
"Trees supposed to give us better air. Birds use it. It's a beautiful tree," neighbor Phil Alfieri said.
"We understand the value of these old growth trees," Westbury Mayor Pete Cavallaro added.
Cavallaro said the village does not cavalierly take down healthy trees. Engineers in the Ellison Avenue repaving project weighed the impact of trees on sidewalks and drainage. Three to four were deemed in need of removal and dozens remain.
"This is a necessary evil that sometimes you have to take down healthy trees. We don't dispute that the tree is healthy. We don't want to take down a tree that isn't in need of being taken down," Cavallaro said.
The village said it will re-analyze to see if the tree can be saved, but trimming the roots is not feasible.
"These are huge trees that if they fall have the potential to do damage and bodily injury," Cavallaro said.
And if the tree must go, the mayor promises it will not be cut down in the middle of the night or surreptitiously -- a decision expected any day -- will be given to the homeowner, and then she has a decision to make.
"I'm gonna have to get arrested. I'll get arrested. I gotta do what's right for my family and what's right for people in this community," Denise Casares said.
She is planning to be like a tree and hold her ground.
The mayor said for every tree that's removed, another one is planted. And in a decade, the village has planted twice as many trees as it has removed.
