Trees hold a special place in Woodstock, their roots woven deep into the town’s identity. The hamlet’s name itself reflects the wooded landscape nestled within the boundaries of the Catskill Park. So, it’s little surprise that the town is home to a small, but fiercely devoted tree committee—one that happens to include several environmental and cultural luminaries. 

Among them is Ed Sanders, the award-winning poet, historian, author, and counterculture icon who helped found the 1960s rock band the Fugs and co-published the Woodstock Journal, a biweekly newspaper for eight years. Sanders, a resident of Woodstock since 1974, has been involved with the tree committee since 2014 and co-chaired earlier versions of the group.

“There’s a movement to give trees political standing, you know, as a protectable force,” Sanders told The Overlook. “Many people just view trees as two-by-fours. And the goal of the tree committee is to spread goodwill among trees, among the populace, and to protect trees that are designated as to be protected.” 

Sanders helped write two revisions of the town’s tree law, which limits when and how trees may be cut down, offering guidelines to property owners and businesses. He chaired the committee that wrote the current scenic overlay district zoning law, which protects view sheds by restricting development above 1,200 feet in elevation.

Though Sanders is widely recognized for his cultural contributions—his friends once included Allen Ginsberg and Janis Joplin—he is equally fervent in his advocacy for trees. He even wrote a song titled “Who Will Heal the Trees?”

Sanders holds a more optimistic view of the future well-being of trees, despite the uncertain political climate. 

He cited “Should Trees Have Standing?,” the 1972 book by Christopher Stone, as foundational to his thinking. “Trees have standing and we are the advocates for trees,” he said.

According to the bio he shared with The Overlook, Sanders’ accomplishments are varied including earning a degree in ancient Greek from New York University and serving as a secretary for the American historian Alf Evers. His books include a 1987 collection, “Thirsting for Peace in a Raging Century, poems 1961-1985,” that won an American Book Award, and “The Family,” a deeply researched history of the Charles Manson murders and the Manson Family cult. In 2011 Da Capo Press published his memoir of the 1960s, “Fug You,” and in 2015 Da Capo published his full-length biography of the actor Sharon Tate. Some of his papers and writings are archived at Princeton University, and his book “A Book of Glyphs” was published in 2014. 

Trees remain vulnerable—to chemicals sprayed on lawns, aluminum from car exhaust, and the changing climate. Sanders and his wife, Miriam, also an activist and artist, stopped tapping their maple trees for syrup after aluminum damage to the roots.

“I felt like a vampire, so we stopped making maple syrup,” Sanders said. Their property is home to old sugar maples, along with hickory nut, oak, and swamp maples—the latter currently dropping “tiny, beautiful red flowers from their upper limbs,” he added. “The swamp maple flowers are floating down onto the road that passes our house.”

 A Committee of Artists and Advocates

The tree committee is also home to a mix of creatives and conservationists. Gay Leonhardt, a celebrated watercolorist, helped found the Woodstock Land Conservancy. Carol March is a painter and photographer with a wide exhibition history in New York City. Linda Lover teaches art and is an active member of the Woodstock community. The committee chair is Michael Veitch, a singer-songwriter who has performed extensively in Europe. He was featured on a PBS special about Hudson Valley singers tasked with writing songs about Holocaust survivors called “We Remember: Songs of Survivors.”

Its newest member is Achva Benzinberg Stein, a prominent landscape architect who founded the graduate landscape architecture program at the City College of New York.

Over the years, the committee has worked to elevate the profile of street trees and strengthen protections for Woodstock’s tree canopy.

“Street trees in particular bring a whole host of benefits to the community,” Veitch said. “Historically we had a lot more street trees in the hamlet than we do currently, and it’s very encouraging there is support for our efforts to replace the older trees as they die off with new shade trees.”

Another member is Cindy Muro, a horticulturist and tree advocate who has advised every iteration of the tree committee since 1990. Her knowledge of native species and ecological matching has been crucial.

“My big thing about planting trees is making sure we select the right tree for the right place,” Muro said. “We’re also trying to make sure that we serve the birds and the insects and all of nature.”

Leonhardt called Muro “an amazing inspiration” who has remained committed through shifts in local politics and committee membership. “She doesn’t change—she just plants trees,” Leonhardt said.

“My big thing about planting trees is making sure we select the right tree for the right place,” she said. In recent years, she has supported planting native trees that boost the native wildlife in our area, as opposed to just picking things that people think are pretty. We’re also trying to make sure that we serve the birds and the insects and all of nature.”  

This Year’s Arbor Day Tree

On Friday at 1:30 p.m., the committee will mark Arbor Day by planting a tree on the great lawn in front of the Woodstock Playhouse. Muro and March selected the tree—a serviceberry—together at Catskill Native Nursery.

Arbor Day, celebrated on the last Friday of April in the U.S., is recognized in at least 44 countries. It originated in 1872 in Nebraska City, Nebraska, where journalist J. Sterling Morton proposed the idea at a State Board of Agriculture meeting. The city is now known as “The Home of Arbor Day.”

Serviceberries are native, modest in size (15 to 30 feet at maturity), and adaptable to the Northeast’s drier climate. They attract birds, pollinators, and beneficial insects—and in this case, carry added meaning.

The serviceberry was chosen as a birthday gift to March from close friends to celebrate her 80th birthday.

“It has berries too—that’s why I really like it, because it would feed some birds and animals, and it has a brilliant, beautiful color,” March said.

It will be the 26th tree planted by the committee since it was revived by Veitch in 2014.

Amy Wu is a reporter covering Woodstock and Saugerties. Send correspondence to amy@theoverlooknews.com.