The Village of East Hills lost more than 100 trees due to the effects of Superstorm Sandy last year, but a local business owner and philanthropist has a plan in which the village and rest of Long Island wouldn’t ever lose another one.
Jason Bash, the president of Kokomo Trading Company in Greenvale, has in recent months donated his company’s palm trees to the Village of Roslyn Harbor’s Village Hall and the Clark Botanic Garden, and his philanthropic efforts have now expanded to East Hills.
At a news conference Friday held outside the East Hills village pool, Bash presented East Hills officials with two windmill palm trees that he said could withstand the impact of the so-called “superstorms” that have rocked Long Island in the last few years.
“These things could take it down to zero degrees,” said Bash, who lives in Roslyn Harbor. “They last time it got to zero degrees on Long Island, I think, was like 1983. The coldest it got last year was 14 degrees. It wouldn’t even notice that. Besides aesthetic beauty, they’re practical.”
The windmill palm tree grows between 8 and 9 feet tall, Bash said, and are native to the Himalayan mountains, exposed year-round to snow and ice.
Bash said palm trees “represent an answer to all these hurricanes,” and will not lose branches as easily as some of the more common trees seen on Long Island.
“It’s immeasurable what we’re spending now, our tax money, to plan for things that, if we planned it right and go forward in a very careful manner, we can cut these losses tremendously,” Bash said.
Village of East Hills Mayor Michael Koblenz said the village spent a lot of money in the months following Sandy cleaning and removing lost branches and tree stumps, adding that palm trees may be the answer.
“This is an outstanding thing for this village to be the recipient of a palm tree which I understand will survive all the winds and hopefully we can go through the winter with it and we’ll see more of them,” Koblenz said.
Bash said he plans to donate a few palm trees each year to local municipalities and that replacing more conventional trees with palm trees presents a practical adaptation to the ever-changing environment.
“Based on common understanding, palm trees are seen down south and that’s all,” Bash said. “I know mother nature fools us all, and I was inclined to do the research and bring the trees to Long Island.”
State Assemblyman Charles Lavine, who with state Sen. Jack Martins (D-Mineola) attended the news conference, said palm trees are “a step in the right direction that encourages our citizens to look for new ways to protect our environment and its phenomenal resources.”
“The resilience of these palm trees serves as a reminder to each of us about how far we have come in the nine months since Superstorm Sandy laid us so very low and how much further we can go to protect Long Island from future storms,” Lavine said.
