New Hampshire

NH removes trees between Nashua neighborhood and busy highway, leaving some ‘outraged'

Some residents in Nashua are bothered by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation's removal of trees and bushes they say helped block traffic sound from Route 3

NBC Universal, Inc.

Some people living in a neighborhood of Nashua are ready to move after the New Hampshire Department of Transportation ripped out trees and bushes separating their homes from a busy on-ramp.

At least eight households in the area of Thompson Road and Birchbrow Road were affected when the shrubbery was removed in late September. Residents say it had blocked out some of the sound of the traffic on Route 3.

NBC10 Boston obtained an email from the NHDOT Commissioner William Cass.

"The main focus on this maintenance effort was opening up our drainage pipes inlets/outlets and catch basins … as well as cleaning up the area of dead trees," the email read, in part.

Brush needed to be cleared so firefighters could easily get through the fire gate and to the hydrant, according to the email.

"There are no plans or resources to do landscaping, plant tree buffers, or consider sound walls," Cass stated in the message.

"I am outraged," neighbor Ramona Burgess said. "They devalued my home. They took out all of this carbon storage, and they gave bogus lies."

Neighbors are left wondering what is next even after contacting all their elected officials and NHDOT.

"They need to replace the trees and the shrubs they took out," Burgess said.

The property belongs to NHDOT, but NBC10 Boston reached out to the office of Mayor Jim Donchess to see if the city can help install some kind of barrier on the property line of the homes. We were told the mayor is unavailable for the next two days, but someone else from the city would call us back.

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