Sadly, a Tree Dies in New Canaan's Waveny Park

NEW CANAAN, Conn. – One tree inside Waveny Park is the easiest to identify – for all the wrong reasons.

Just feet from the entrance to Waveny House stands a copper beech tree that is nearly dead, if not already gone. It has noticeably gray bark and half of its branches are bereft of the bright green leaves that are abundant among the other trees in the park. The other half doesn’t look much better, with many dark and sagging leaves.

“It a great old tree,” said Recreation Department Director Steve Benko. “It was a gathering spot and a centerpiece for that part of the park.”

Unfortunately, the tree won’t be around much longer, the victim of environmental conditions and old age.

Town Tree Warden Bruce Pauley said the tree, estimated to be more than 100 years old, had several things going against it, including drought conditions over the last 10 to 15 years. It also had gurgling roots, which wrapped themselves around other roots and applied pressure, preventing it from getting needed nutrients. “The problems with trees are cumulative,” Pauley said.

Benko agreed. “Over the last four or five years, it’s shown signs of distress,” he said.

The tree also suffered from soil compaction with so many people walking around it. “It should have been mulched to protect the roots from drying and the mulching has to be done correctly,” he said. “It’s the same nice old tree and now it’s a dead old tree.”

Town parks officials had tried to rescue the tree for several years by digging and loosening the soil and finding different ways to feed it. But it was too little, too late. Pauley said the tree will soon be cut down, destined for transformation into mulch or wood products. The town will likely replace it with an American Beech tree, Pauley said, which is heartier and can withstand some of the drought conditions that plague the dying European tree.

“There’s just no saving it at this point,” he said. “No one likes to condemn a tree, especially one as big and pretty as that one. But you can’t make the dead come back from the grave.”

How sad are you to see this copper beech tree dying? Did you visit the tree while you were at Waveny Park? Let us know by leaving a comment below. You can also talk about it on our Facebook page.

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