AP News, May 21st, 2007
Trees that were bent and broken by a record snowstorm have been coming down by the hundreds this spring as work crews finish what Mother Nature started.
But, in the shadows of the city's towering old grain elevators, some of the old logs are being resurrected by a buzzing chain saw.
Artist Rick Pratt has been carving larger-than-life likenesses of city-connected luminaries _ such as former President Millard Fillmore and Frank Lloyd Wright _ from the 2,000-pound logs.
When the "Carvings for a Cause" project is done, 40 to 80 carvings will stand sentinel around the area as a tourist attraction.
"Our hope is that people will be able to go out and visit the carvings, maybe get their picture next to them, maybe it might even evoke some question or learning about it," said Pratt. "And all of this is coming from trees that are standing silent."
On a recent morning, Pratt coaxed the Indian chief Red Jacket from the trunk of a 200-year-old tulip poplar with precise swipes of his 12-inch carving saw. Wood chips and sawdust flittered into a pile underfoot.
It, like the other sculptures, is carved from fallen old-growth trees _ including oaks, maples and magnolias _ pummeled by a 22 1/2-inch snowfall that arrived Oct. 12. The trees were still in their blazing autumn glory and nowhere near ready for the heavy blanket that would have settled harmlessly during the winter sleep.
The storm was freakish even in this snow-worn city on the eastern shore of Lake Erie. Officials are still measuring the damage seven months later.
About 4,000 trees with mangled canopies are marked to come down along Buffalo streets alone _ a number that excludes trees inside city parks and cemeteries and in two dozen surrounding communities hit by the storm.
Others have been sheared, as if by an overzealous barber, but will remain standing for now. And some 2,500 others are long gone from city streets, hauled off soon after the storm and chipped into bits.
By some estimates, as many as 90 percent of trees were damaged in Buffalo and its suburbs, including an estimated 58,690 that will need to be replaced.
The art project was the idea of Therese Forton-Barnes, an event planner and author who, like so many who live here, was heartbroken over the snowstorm's devastation to Buffalo's treasured system of interconnected parks, parkways and circles. It was envisioned in 1868 by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.
"The roots of these trees are as deep as the roots of this community," Forton-Barnes said. "These trees were here when all of our ancestors were here and all of our relatives, and to just see them cut down and chipped up crushed my heart."
Inspired by the carvings inside a friend's home, she came up with another idea for the trees: Not only would they stand again, they would tell the community's story through the people connected to it.
There is Wright, who designed buildings here, and Fillmore, the 13th president. Contemporaries make the list, as well: favorite son Tim Russert, the NBC newsman, and author Joyce Carol Oates.
The list grows constantly: Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly; spiritual leader and candidate for sainthood, the Rev. Nelson Baker; "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" composer Harold Arlen.
"I am honored to have a carving of me and look forward to the unveiling," said Kelly, who said the project "will touch everyone in such a positive way after such a devastating storm."
Meanwhile, a frenzy of planting began in late April when dozens of volunteers fanned out with seedlings that, to people here, have big roots to fill.
"We're known for our trees. We're a tree city. It's important we get them back," said Paul Maurer, a broadcasting sales manager who, with attorney David Colligan, co-founded Re-Tree Western New York within weeks of the storm that led to a federal disaster designation. The goal is to plant 30,000 new trees in five years, a $10 million undertaking.
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On the Net:
Carvings For a Cause: http://www.carvingsforacause.com
Re-Tree Western New York: http://www.retreewny.org
