No one wants to see the tall, wonderful trees on Jamestown’s West Third Street cut down, certainly not city arborist Dan Stone.

But Stone has studied the trees enough to arrive at an unpopular truth — the trees are becoming a safety risk and need to be removed. City residents won’t want to hear this, but Stone is making the right decision in removing the 43 oak trees, most of them more than 100 years old.

A Nov. 15 wind storm toppled two of the trees, including one that landed on a homeowner’s garage. A wind storm in October 2019 brought one of the majestic trees down on someone’s house. Yes, homeowner’s insurance will help pay for the damage, but what happens if one of the trees comes down on a person or a vehicle being driven down Third Street?

“I cannot make 100-year-old oak trees have roots that will sustain them any longer,” Stone said during a Parks, Recreation and Conservation Commission meeting last week. “As a precaution to public safety, I see them as a liability. We need to address this sooner rather than later.î

Stone is looking to make lemonade from the bag of lemons he was dealt. Money has been received from the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation to plant new trees along West Third Street. Stone wants those trees to have a maximum height of 50 to 55 feet, which will make them safer decades into the future. Stone said some of the new trees that might be planted include American elms, tulip and ginkgo. He is also looking into purchasing some items that will help manage how the roots grow along the terrace.

Arborists have long known West Third Street’s oak trees weren’t sustainable forever, but no one has wanted to deal with the problem in part because of the inevitable public backlash. Dan Stone and Parks, Recreation and Conservation Commission members deserve a lot of credit for making an unpopular, but necessary. decision.