Windsor struggles to replace trees ripped by tornado

By Carol O'Meara, Special to the Rocky

Friday, June 20, 2008

Take a moment and go outside to look - really look - at the trees surrounding you. See how they cover the streets in shade and soften the lines of our cities? Blink slowly and imagine in that moment that all the trees are torn from their roots, their limbs shattered by wind.

For the town of Windsor, all it took was the turn of a storm and in the blink of an eye this became reality. In the aftermath of the tornado, cleaning up the damage has left the town realizing the extent of the loss and struggling to find a way to replant its trees.

"Windsor was well-known for its trees, but we lost about 371 of them," says Parks and Recreation Director Melissa Chew, referring to trees on public property. "That's 38 percent, and insurance doesn't cover trees and landscaping."

Although the town has a $50,000 rider on insurance for landscaping, it will be rapidly used up in the re-sodding of ball fields and other play areas, Chew said.

The devastation to privately owned trees has not been assessed. Sharon Harris, executive director of the Colorado Nursery and Greenhouse Association, says the stress of the storm will start taking trees that the wind didn't, through trunk cracking, hail bruising and root damage.

Members of the Windsor Tree Board plan to go door-to-door asking for a count of the losses, which unofficial estimates place at close to 3,000 townwide for trees on public and private property.

One of the aftershocks of the tornado has been learning that homeowner's insurance doesn't cover loss of trees. "Tornados are considered part of the high-wind category, and because that's such a common weather phenomenon here, it becomes cost-prohibitive to cover," said Carol Walker, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association in Greenwood Village. Broken and tossed branches happen in every wind storm, said Walker, and covering damage every time that happens would drive insurance rates through the roof, making it unattainable to many.

"Windsor is our most expensive tornado in Colorado, with estimates of $147 million in damage, including the accompanying hail," she said. The second most expensive tornado ripped through Limon in June 1990, leading to $20 million in claims.

Help for replacement rests on the generous donations of others who, like the residents who miss their old companions, love trees. Neighboring communities and organizations are reaching out to offer support through donations and funds that will go toward planting saplings in the footprints where giants once stood, some for over a century.

"There's no way to replace those old trees, but it's a start," Harris says. "In a time of such landscape devastation, we want to aid with plantings that help the community get back to normal."

Member growers and wholesalers plan donations for both the fall and the spring toward the town's target of replanting a new tree in the front yard of each home.

The Windsor Re-Create Fund, managed by the Community Foundation serving Greeley and Weld County (711 Eighth Ave., Greeley, greeleyweldcomfound.org/), is earmarking funds for the rebuilding of parks and recreation facilities. So far, fundraisers have collected about $1,500 for this effort.

Denver, too, knows that to plant a tree, you need to dig deep. Through its Tree by Tree: The Mile High Million program, donations to the TreeBank now through July 10 will go toward restoring Windsor Main Park, where many trees were downed. TreeBank, greenprintdenver.org/trees/support.php, is an online fund for supporting tree-planting and education initiatives. Visitors to the TreeBank can direct their donations to the tree programs they want to support.

"TreeBank offers a great way to build resources for our local tree-planting efforts as well as an opportunity to help Windsor, our neighbor to the north, restore their tree canopy in the aftermath of last month's tornado," Mayor John Hickenlooper said in a press release sent out by Denver Parks and Recreation. "It's the least we can do for a community that's been through so much."

Carol O'Meara, a local gardening expert, may be reached at omearac@yahoo.com.

• June 21, 2008

  11:45 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  280Pagoda writes:

  It is laudable to help your neighbor when they are in need. But with so many of Denver's own trees needing help or replacement from Dutch Elm disease, attacks by various bugs and blights and other problems, can Denver afford to donate trees, time and money to Windsor's cause when Denver has acknowledged our own trees need replacement, replanting and repair?

  Wasn't it only a week or so ago that Denver's Park and Recreation was asking Denver's City Council for the ability to charge (fine) individual citizens up to $1000 for not taking care of trees on private property near right of ways because Denver could no longer afford to do it within Park and Recreation's budget? Now, we have time and money to spare to help out Windsor? We can't take care of our own Denver mountain parks, and have to get handouts from Douglass and Jefferson County to help us pay for roads, trees and other improvements include fixing health and safety code violations, some of which go back for decades, but now we can find the time and money to help replace Windsor's trees from their tragedy?

  This smacks of political opportunism and not real compassion. As a good neighbor, Denver should help Windsor when it can, but Denver time and money should be spent on Denver. Denver's political compassion for people in trouble should include Denver taxpayers. Until we can take care of our own trees without having to fine Denver citizens to do so, we should forgo the photo op however tempting, and remember charity begins at home.