When you have a tree that needs to come down, you call a tree removal service. An arborist may try to persuade you to save the tree. Largess Forestry Inc. falls into the latter category, led by an owner, Matt Largess, who said he wants to save as many as possible.
As an arborist and a consultant, Largess often examines trees and testifies in court disputes over them. In Rhode Island, those fights often involve views of the water. A former logger, he opened his business in 1986, and it eventually became a go-to service for homeowners who wanted to save their trees as much as remove them.
“When you become a voice of trees, people know you. They want you because you save trees,” he said. “That’s my motto. I get calls all the time [from people]: ‘I want to save this tree.’ ”
Largess Forestry does cut down trees, of course, but it also has a program that allows people to plant replacement and memory trees. And Largess is committed to saving intact forests, where trees form their own habitat and have a history worth preserving.
In Central Falls, his company planted more than 50 cherry trees along Roosevelt Avenue, helping the city launch its annual cherry blossom festival. The company also worked with the city to help reforest its streets, planting enough varieties that Central Falls has qualified as a “Tree City” by the National Arbor Day Foundation.
In Rhode Island, Largess became well known as a tree preservationist after he helped to identify an old-growth American beech forest in Portsmouth, now called Oakland Forest.
Now held by the Aquidneck Land Trust, the trees are thought to be at least 300 years old, among the last remaining old-growth trees in the state. At the time of the identification, they were threatened by development. “They were going to cut them for condos,” Largess explained. “There were no trees in New England as old as this forest. It was an ancient forest. That’s when I completely changed my business.”
As a consultant, he’s now working in central Florida regularly to help identify and protect an old-growth cypress forest.
Given climate change, and the power of forests to capture carbon emissions, are more people committed to preserving them?
“It’s definitely going in that direction,” Largess said. He does see lingering disparities among communities, where wealthy areas have more trees than poor city neighborhoods.
In Central Falls, he identified an American elm, a rare survivor of the blight that has killed most mature American elms in the U.S.
Trees have importance beyond shade and beauty, he said. They impact how people live among each other.
“Crime is down,” he said. “It’s amazing what’s going on with that city and I’m convinced it’s the trees. All kinds of scientific studies [show] if you are healing in a hospital, and you look out and see a tree, you heal twice as fast. … We don’t know why, but trees are magical.”
OWNER: Matt Largess
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Arboriculture, forestry and consulting
LOCATION: 221 Shady Lea Road, North Kingstown
EMPLOYEES: 11
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1986
ANNUAL SALES: $1.3 million
Mary MacDonald is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Macdonald@PBN.com.
