Plan to fell 200 trees draws critics York says it needs a new athletic field on the site, but conservationists launch a petition drive. A plan to chop down nearly 200 trees to make way for a new athletic field next to the Village Elementary School is meeting resistance. Conservationists have started a petition drive to save the trees, urging the school board to build the field where the town won't have to take down trees. The board expects to receive the petition when it reviews the plans for the fields Feb. 7. The school board proposed the project to help replace athletic fields at the nearby middle school that were sacrificed to expand that school.
Trees are a sensitive issue in York, one of the fastest-growing towns in southern Maine.
Some say too many trees have been sacrificed for new homes. The town of about 10,000 has roughly doubled in population since the late 1970s. Many of the graceful old oaks that lined the road leading to the historic village have been taken down due to disease, and some residents want to save as many trees as they can. Mike Lee, a local arborist who is circulating the petition, is among those who say good trees need to be saved. But Dwight Bardwell, a board member who attended the school in the 1970s, says he supports the tree removal.