by Garrett Alberico
Over the past few years, the maple at 362 E Broadway became known in the neighborhood for the trinkets and treasures it bestowed on passerby. The gardener who tended the tree tells about the Giving Tree’s final days.
They finally arrived in mid-August. Men in grey T-shirts and white hard hats. Urban Forestry had left the notice on the door when summer had just barely arrived; a rather thoughtful and compassionate note considering its bureaucratic origins. It informed us that after years of decline, the once-lovely maple in the parking strip had indeed died over the winter, and that the Dept. of Urban Forestry would remove the tree soon. They kindly thanked us for providing a home and caring for such a valued tree and acknowledged that it had served the community well.