INTERVIEWS
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What kinds of things did you do in the forest as a child? |
What
are your thoughts about the new Elder Care Housing project? |
Have you
ever had to cut down a tree on your property? |
What
value do the trees on your property add to your home? |
| "I grew up in Putney, Newfane and Townshend...I would go into the woods. Just looking around, sometimes I'd see animals. I would look for deer. Sometimes I would just walk in the woods... I'd spend probably at least 4-5 hours a week in the woods doing different things. I might go in the woods with my buddies and play hide and go seek or we'd just wander through the woods and see where we came out. It was fun...Sometimes we would try and scare the other guy or sometimes we would look at the different animals and flowers and things like that…Sometimes I would go alone and hope I didn't get lost ‘cause the woods are pretty big. I don't ever remember going much with parents or brothers or sisters but mostly with my friends...Sometimes we'd go in the woods looking for big hills to slide down with our sleds, or paths we could ride our bikes on. I spent an awful lot of time in the woods when I was growing up...walking around, exploring, sometimes I would look for old cellar holes where houses used to be...and I would look for old bottles or relics, what people used to have around their house...Back in those days they didn't have a place to recycle or take their garbage, so people would usually bury it outside their house somewhere and then they'd move away and the house would fall down and all that would be left would be a stone foundation. Sometimes we would get on a logging road and follow it to see where it came out. I don't know as I'd dare do that now, but it was fun. We always came out somewhere, or if we went too far and didn't come out at some other location, we would turn around and follow the road back...Sometimes when I was just walking in the woods I'd find neat rocks and maybe a funny looking branch or a twig or something that had a neat shape to it." (A. Monette) |
"Well,
I believe that it's something very needed in our community because we
have a lot of senior citizens and people that need help when they get
old My grandmother is 97 years old and she is living at Heinz home which
is going to be part of the new Valley Cares, so at her age it's very
difficult to take care of herself because she can't walk anymore. She's
in a wheelchair and her memory isn't as good as it used to be...There
are a lot of people like that that need help. Seniors can't take care
of their big farmhouses and they all need a place to go when they get
older and can't take care of themselves. I think that the concept of
the Valley Cares is a real good one. Of course, when you build something
that large, it does detract from I'd like to call old Vermont. They're
brand new buildings and in the middle of them is the old brick house...
it does look kind of funny...I'm not sure if that's the best place for
it or not...we do need that type of housing. If it was 100 condominiums,
I might not feel as good about it, but Valley Cares is going to help
people. I do get concerned about people clearing mountaintops and building
hundreds of condos or very expensive houses...I think it's also nice
that they have a nature trail up through there. We could probably use
a lot more nature trails even if they're on the outskirts of Townshend,
maybe even over by the cemetery somewhere or maybe on one of the back
roads that's close to town. " (A. Monette) |
"Some trees have been there for many, many years...I've planted a lot of trees and bushes on my property since I bought it and if I cut down a tree I usually plant two to replace it. I like lots of trees and I like bushes and I like flowers. I have apple trees. I have oak trees. I have maple trees. I think I have a birch tree. I have fruit trees. One is a pear tree. We might have a few scrub trees (trees that grew up out of bushes). I've had to cut a few because they interfered. They were old and they were going to fall on the house or they were too big and were endangering the power lines or the house. I've cut two maple trees down and I've probably planted four maple trees." (A. Monette) |
"To
me they add a lot of value. They provide shade. They give you some privacy.
I find enjoyment watching them in the springtime when they're blossoming
and in the fall when the leaves turn colors and fall off. Occasionally
a branch will fall off and it helps heat my house ‘cause I have a wood
furnace. They add a lot of value and also, if you've ever seen a house
with no trees or bushes, they look awful funny. Trees are good for the
environment. They're good for comfort for me and my family. They're
good for shade." (A. Monette) |
| "Playing
in creeks and building forts and climbing trees." (S. Overden)
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"The project will benefit the town economy by employing people, and when they buy things here or live here. Many local residents that need special care as they get older or don't like to live alone, will be able to stay there and be close to their doctors. It would have been better if the project could have saved more of the big trees to shade the buildings and keep them cooler. Big trees also give off a lot of oxygen that makes living by them healthy. I hope the new trees will get good care and grow up fast. Someone needs to be in charge of making sure they grow up healthy and strong." (S. Overden) |
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| "In
the summertime I lived in Marlboro, Vermont...We had 10 acres so I would
go our back and wander through the woods and wander on the dirt roads.
We would like to make teepees. We had something called White Deer Lodge
and so we pretended that we were Indian princesses and we had a lot
of fun. We always liked to be out in the woods. I think it's really
important to be able to have lots of good woods around and to be able
to get out into nature." (S.Rowell) |
"Well I think, first of all, that it does serve a really important need because there are a lot of people who are elderly who don't have a safe place to live and people who can‘t take care of themselves. So I think that's really important that we have that kind of housing. As it's going up, it's pretty tall, isn't it! I think it's taller than most people thought and it's certainly going to change the way Townshend looks. It will be interesting how it turns out and I'm curious to see what they'll do in the back because they have cleared a lot of the woods out back. (The sugar house) is also a piece of history, that's maybe something that should have been preserved." (S. Rowell) |
"We had a really big white pine on our property that was getting old and was going to come down if we didn't take it down. So we ended up taking that one down because we had, just a couple of months before that, a tree come down and take our power lines down." (S. Rowell) |
"I have lots of trees on my property. We have mostly hard wood trees. We have some that are pines. I have oaks and I have some maples and I have some ash and I have some elm trees that I'm very happy about. My trees add shade in the summertime and they provide a wind barrier and make it a nice cool place. I like to listen to the leaves in the trees. And the funniest thing about my trees is in the fall you keep hearing this “thump, thump, thump” on the roof. The first year that we were there, I thought, “What is that noise?”... it was the acorns coming off of the oak tree. It was very funny. So, we like the trees." (S. Rowell) |
| "I
spent a lot of my free time in the woods. We grew up right next to a
wildlife sanctuary. There were trails and we used to follow the trails
out into the pond and we would catch snapping turtles and things like
that. The first day of first grade I met my best friend and we used
to always play out by the sanctuary. I had a lot of fun growing up.
I liked to lay out in the bark yard at night and watch the shooting
stars. We camped out in the back yard a few times. It was very dark
so you got a nice clear sky. I also camped at Mt. Monadanock and down
by the Quabbin Reservoir. "(M. Rippa) |
"I live right across the street and I didn't think at the time it was going to be such a big project. I dislike that they destroyed the land where they're putting the new buildings. There was an old sugar house and a garage and another out barn and they just flattened all of it (actually, the sugar house they burned). But they kept the main house...I like the trail that they built, that was nice. It's nice to walk through there and take my children. It's just, it's a little too early to tell. I think I'm going to lose a lot of my privacy by all those buildings being there and people are going to be driving in my driveway...But I think there was a need for something like that. I just don't think that they chose the greatest location for it. There are some open fields for sale right just at the bottom of the hill and that would have been more suitable to me than putting it where they are. We'll just see what happens. I think it's going to be much more of a nicer area for the elderly people...I'm just not sure how it's going to effect me. Hopefully it won't at all... I knew when I bought the house that it was going to be built. I just didn't know that it was going to be quite as large as it is. We'll see what happens. " (M. Ripa) |
"Unfortunately I did. I had to cut down between fifteen and twenty of them. A lot of them were very small trees. There were a few that were very big. The only reason I had to cut them down was that they were hanging over the house. They were so close to the house that you couldn't walk between the trees and the house. And they were shading the house and rotting the wood. So I rebuilt the house and I had the trees cut down just so we would have more of a sunny area. I left all the trees over the bank all in place just like they were." (M. Ripa) |
"I love the shade around the perimeter of the property. I like the house to be sunny itself. But when all the trees bloom it makes a nice natural border so you don't see other people and they don't see you. It gives you more privacy in your home." (M. Ripa) |
| "I spent a lot of time in the forest as a child. That was pretty much all I did. We had a big barn. I used to go in the barn and find little play toys and I would go out in the woods and build forts and stuff and chop down trees. I would ride my bike a lot. Well, not really in the forest, but I would go up Peaked Mt. Road and I would go see the buffalo. I remember, I think it was in second grade, I had Julie Dolan. I used to look forward to Wednesdays. We would go on field trips. We would go out in the woods and draw things and that was like my best year in school." (M. Fitzpatrick) |
"I drive by it every day. It's hard for people to live where they need jobs and the Valley Care housing projects will give them jobs. I was envisioning something a little lower, not so many stories and to set things farther back. For me, just the way they went about it, like tearing down the garage instead of asking anybody if they wanted materials or asking anybody if they wanted to take off pieces and burning down the sugar house in the back. I just felt, I don't know, it was not the way to go about it. To see that happen in Vermont, it's kind of scary, you know, because the Vermont I know is rural, It's open, lots of trees, a lot of fields and it's scary to think that the ways are going to change into something like Massachusetts or Connecticut, really populated areas." .(M. Fitzpatrick) |
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| "I would say the time I spent in the woods would be in the summer when I went to camp. I would hike and find things to make things out of like pinecones and things like that. I'd look for birch bark to write messages on. In those days you could actually mail them. The post office would usually take them. (I also liked) looking at little animals and tracking. I still go in the woods frequently since I moved to Vermont, hiking and looking for bird's nests. I've lived here about 27 years." (S. Messenger) |
"In my heart, I am all for it. I know the person who gave the land and I have walked that land a lot because it connects our house with Charlie Marchant's house. We have cross country skied on it. We have gone sledding, built jumps back there, hiked back there. So I am familiar with the land, familiar with the former owner. Since Vermont is now listed as the state with the oldest population of any state in the country, I think I'm all for it." (S.Messenger) |
"We've had two that were struck by lightning, which split the tree and killed it. So, we did have to take them down. But we have never cut trees for any other reasons." (S. Messenger) |
"I'm hoping that they add a great deal (of value)...one thing is that I think they just make it look more like it fits in. It's an 1840's house and it wouldn't be an 1840's house if it were in the middle of a cleared field. The only concern I have is that the big sugar maple, (which is huge, several hundred years old, and is sitting in our front yard) we have been told, one day, in the right wind, will crash into our house. But ‘til that day I really like them and I think other people come and they look at the birds that have built nests in them and they look at all the feeders around and that adds a lot to the house, plus, I plant a tree for every one I know that has died...I have one for my dad and one for my mom and so now I have 12 trees that I have planted in the yard. " (S. Messenger) |
| "I grew up in Alaska... (we spent) a lot of time in the forest ‘cause we lived in the woods. We built tree forts. We used to go hiking a lot. We spent a lot of time in the woods outside. We'd go outside especially if the weather was good. I used to climb trees a lot with my older brother. We used to build forts. We used to go skiing in the woods, walking in the woods." (M. Donahue)
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"The good thing is I think there is a real need for a place where older people can stay, where maybe their families have moved out of town and I like that it's still in Townshend village and it's not way out of town so that they're separate from the town. It's still part of the village. They're right here. So I think that's good. I think it's going to be a positive thing for the town to have the older folks. Maybe they can walk around town and they'll add a lot. It's nice, instead of pushing them off to some remote place, it's nice to have them be a part of village life. I hope they can get outside and come visit. I'm sure they'll be able to visit your school quite a bit. It looks like a huge place. When I drive by, it looks like a big building. I think it's a priority that we have a place for the older folks. I can't think of any negatives. If they had put it down in some nice field, like below town, on the way to Brattleboro, those nice horse pastures, I would have felt a little funny about that. But the way it's tucked into the village, it doesn't really take up farmland and it's a good use of that space. " (M. Donahue) |
"We heat with wood...woodstoves and fireplaces I cut usually the sick ones, the ones that aren't growing so well, the trees that I don't think are quite as nice. I'll cut those off ‘cause the other ones will fill in. The other ones will grow more if you take the ones that are crowding each other. So there are times when it's not bad to cut down trees, in my opinion. Heating with wood is good ‘cause instead of burning oil, you can cut trees...and they will renew themselves. It's a good thing. So that's when I cut trees" . (M.Donahue) |
"The trees I have planted around my house provide shade in the summer...At this time of year, you know how the sun is hitting your house all day? It gets really hot and heats up the house. Well, if you have shade the house stays cooler during the day...In the winter, the leaves come off and the sun can still come in. I also think they look nice around the house, (especially) peach trees, apple trees, smaller trees. You wouldn't want a massive oak tree next to the house." (M. Donahue) |
| "I played, went camping, hiking, swimming if there was water. I had a good time playing in the woods." (B. Cutts) |
"It's bigger than I thought it was going to be. I thought they were going to be much smaller." (B. Cutts) |
"No, but we're about to. They're old and we're afraid they're going to fall down on our house." (B.Cutts)
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"They make a lot of shade for us in the summer, so it's not 100 degrees every day in my house. In the winter, when it's windy, they block a lot of the wind." (B. Cutts) |
| "I spent a fair amount of time in the woods. My dad used to take us out. There was a bird sanctuary. So we would go there watch and listen to the birds. My favorite bird is probably the eagle. I was in my twenties and I finally saw one at the Quabbin Resevoir in Massachusetts and since that time I've seen one in Brattleboro a couple of years ago. So they're even around here now. We'd go out and get Christmas trees. My uncle had a wood lot. At that time the boy scouts had a cabin in the woods. We'd go there and do overnights and do our own cooking and we'd hike around."(D. Jackson)
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"You're right. It is quite a project. It's large from Rte. 35 they're huge buildings, but let's face it, we have the largest population…more people need both the independent living and the assisted living. So there's a big need in the Valley for this type of operation. It's called progress in a way. It's one of those things that you wonder about in some ways because it is so big, but it fits in and fortunately there's a hospital close by. It's close to the center of town. Developing land is a fact of life. You can't get around it ‘cause you'll probably need a place to live. It's going to have to happen and we hope in such a way that people can live with it and not get too upset because the houses are going to have to come for more people. " (D. Jackson) |
"I cut my own firewood for winter. I have a big cast iron stove in the kitchen. I'm splitting wood for next winter". (D. Jackson) | "We've got some shade trees that help keep the house cool. It's nice to have trees close to the house. I've planted a locust in front of my house. There were two or three big maples but they got so big that they started to die so I cut them down and replaced one of them with a locust and that's gotten big enough now so that it shades the house. Mostly up in the woods are pine and oak. I even have a hickory tree that's growing. People like to have trees around their home. They're also good for enjoyment. Walking through the woods is fun in itself. Also the woods are a place where other plants can grow and animals, like birds, salamanders and all kinds of things. " (D. Jackson) |
"I spent a lot of time in the woods because we walked to grade school. We could walk on the sidewalk or we could walk in the woods. My friends and I went through the woods most of the time...We had a bicycle path that we would ride our bikes and we would put jumps in like people do today...We would play games and in the winter we would have snowball fights and things like that and build snow forts in the woods. Here is a lesson story. Have you ever heard the saying never play with fire? Well, my friends and I decided we wanted to have a campfire. We started the fire and the wind picked up and blew the fire into the bushes and caught the woods on fire...We had visions of getting in trouble with the fire department and the police...We took cardboard and used it to put the fire out. We smashed it down and jumped on it and stamped it with our feet. The fire department never came. The police never came. We thought we had gotten away with it until I went to my house. My mother went, “sniff, sniff” and said, “You've been somewhere where it's been smokey.” Uh oh, mmm. So now what do you do? So I had to tell my mother that we had a campfire. I told her much later that the campfire got out of control and she wasn't happy about that but she didn't tell my father...We learned our lesson and never did that again." (C. Marchant) |
"Well, I'm on the board of directors for Valley Cares. I'm one of the members in charge of that project. So, in order to build something like that I know a lot of trees were taken down... but when they finish the project, more will go in their place. Part of the plan is to have plantings of different things around to replace what was taken down. Some of the stuff that was on Mr. Kroenmyer's property was dug up in such a way that they could reuse them (They balled the roots, protecting them with dirt.)...It looks kind of naked from taking all the trees down but when they're done with the project they will do a thing called landscaping and that's going to include planting trees and bushes and things like that. And the trail, you've been on the trail? The trail is going to extend from where it ends now down behind Valley Cares and then I don't know if you know where my house is, but it's up where the old Janus factory was up Route 35. Well it's going to go up about another 1/2 mile. Someone at the grade school was talking about connecting it to where it starts in the hospital parking lot to the school. I think they got permission to do it... If all goes well, there will be a trail going on the side of the road from the baseball field and to the cemetery and down to the old railroad tracks. " (C. Marchant) | "I'm a believer in what's called “sustainable agriculture.” It's where you treat trees like a crop, so you cut some and have them turned into lumber for things like this table and bookshelves and so forth. You let the other one's grow up and in a few years you cut some of them. I use wood for firewood and I use wood for sugaring. There were some big white pine trees. Some of them were over 100 feet tall. They were making the house very shady because they were so big so we had them cut out and we're letting other trees grow up in their place." (C. Marchant)
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| "Well, you know, I was in the suburbs, so I hardly ever went in the woods, but there was kind of a woodsy thing, it was like a swamp. So I used to go out and creep around in the swamp. My friends and I used to go down and play there...We used to try and catch snakes. We caught 700,000,000 tadpoles. Then we would bring them home and watch them turn into frogs. We used to catch a lot of them. I remember there was this one snake that came up. I was just down there looking and it looked like a big one. It had those giant fangs...I think it was some kind of giant moccasin... I don't think I'm much of a forest guy. We didn't' have many animals. We had raccoons and skunks and stuff..".(M. Attley)
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"Aah, Valley Cares. I see, you guys were up there checking it out and you were on the trail behind it, right? Valley Cares is a really cool thing. I work with senior citizens. Valley Cares is going to give senior citizens a chance to stay here in Vermont ‘cause it's going to be affordable...I have to admit, I also knew that land back when my wife and I used to walk back there...It's really nice land, so I feel a little bad about them tearing up the land. So, on one had I'm thinking its a good thing for giving the seniors a home, but I'm feeling kind of sad about the land being chopped up like that." (M. Attley) |
"We have white pines and a couple of maple trees. No, we've never cut trees on my property." (M. Attley) | "I think trees add to the value of our house, especially we've got these really nice maple trees and I think it makes the house look better. " (M. Attley) |
"I spent a lot of time in the woods. When we weren't in school and it wasn't raining, we would be outdoors from the start of the day to the end of the day. We could be in the woods or playing games in the neighborhood fields or we would be crossing streams. There was really no end to the things we were doing. We were always outside and we were always in the woods. We built lots of forts. It seems to me we weren't just content with one fort, before we finished one fort we'd be on to building another one. We did a lot of imaginary things in the forest, having different worlds from our regular worlds that we spent when we were in school or with our families. We had all different kinds of cities and worlds and w would also, in the wintertime when there would be flooding from the snow and then the snow would freeze, we would skate in the woods also. It's kind of sad, particularly when I go back to the town that I lived in, there's not as much woods as there used to be because a lot of people have built houses, but even though there are woods, you don't see people outdoors as much as you used to. We were outdoors all day. I was talking to my brother about this the other day and he said we'd be outside and we would have lunch at whoever's house we were closest to at the time. We'd leave the house in the morning and then we'd come back at night. We would just play outside all day." (B. Marchant) |
"I think it's really great. We need that kind of project in the community. It's a little hard to get used to it ‘cause the buildings are very large and they are bigger than most things you see in Townshend. I think we'll get used to them. It's just something that we need. We need to have housing for our elderly residents and so it's really a good thing, but it's taken some getting used to. " (B. Marchant) |
"We have trees all around the house and then we have woods and they're not really fun woods to play in because they're kind of swampy. My husband, Charlie Marchant, is hoping to make a pond out of the swampy area so we might spend some more time in the woods. I'm not sure why we did it ( cut trees) , but I do know that after, we did sell the lumber and make some money from the trees. But I'm not sure we did it for the money. I think Charlie wanted to clear the property to make a pond, but also some of the trees were old and some of them were in danger of falling on the house maybe. That was something he took care of and I didn't really get involved in it." (B. Marchant)
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"They're good because they are beautiful and they are good for the environment because they take in carbon dioxide and they're pretty and the birds live in them and bugs live in them and they shade the house. I'm sure they add some monetary value, but they're just beautiful and pretty and, my trees may not be good for climbing or putting up tree houses, but that's what good trees are for." (B. Marchant)
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