Tree removal

[pearlythebunny.livejournal.com]

The city is removing 155 trees because of ash borers. There's a public hearing about this issue on May 25 at the DPW building, 17 Franey Road, 5:30 PM.  I hope the city will replace the trees, but the person I talked to at 311 didn't know if this would occur.

Here's a list of trees slated for removal:
http://www.somervillema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Advanced%20Site%20Listing%20Ash%20tree%20Poor.pdf

Here's information on what Cambridge is doing:
https://www.cambridgema.gov/theworks/ourservices/urbanforestry/emeraldashborer

Now that I'm looking at this list of trees, I don't think it is complete. There is a tree at 268 Willow that is marked for removal, but it is not on the list.

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Comments

[keithn.livejournal.com]

That's too bad, this is going to really change the look of Willow Ave.

[wardv.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is pretty crazy. They list 21 (20, one is really on Josephine) trees on Willow alone! They must plant new trees.

Apparently the city uses 'Treekeeper 7' to keep track of trees, and we can all log in as guests: http://somervillema.daveytreekeeper.com/. It's clunky but it does map all those locations listed in the PDFs to the actual tree locations, on a map. The data doesn't seem entirely up to date.

[pearlythebunny.livejournal.com]

This is pretty interesting. According to this document, there are 115 trees on Willow Avenue. It sounds as if the city will need to remove almost 20 percent of these trees because of the ash borer.

[nomacmac.livejournal.com]

This is really disappointing. According to the Cambridge link above, it seems like a preventative treatment is available for healthy ash trees. Does anyone know if this was tried on these trees before their condition became 'poor'? We lost one big tree outside of the Brown School a few years ago, which was never replaced. Now we are going to lose the last 3 sidewalk trees. I hope the city makes replacing them a priority. Willow Ave needs some shade!

[lancedavisward6.livejournal.com]

I'll add an item in tomorrow's Board Agenda to get more info generally, including what preventative steps have been taken (and what haven't)... unless I find out there's already an item in committee, in which case I will pursue that. Will also certainly push to prioritize replacement. There was a (less than optimally publicized) meeting on this topic at City Hall last night. It was recorded, I'm told, and as soon as I can find a URL where it now resides, I will update here. I suspect many questions were answered during that so if anyone attended (I was in committee meeting) please share. It's just a terrible situation.

[elizabeth weinbloom (from livejournal.com)]

Lance, do you know the status of the city's potential hiring of an arborist? I was at a BoA meeting last spring where a resident presented this issue and warned that we faced pretty much exactly this scenario, and there was discussion of whether the city should invest in preventative treatment and/or a full-time arborist, but I haven't heard anything about it since then.

(I think that guy lived on Willow, too. :( I'm sure he's one bummed Cassandra right now)

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

It looks like the sign says the meeting is at 5:30pm, it just hides that information on a different line.

[pearlythebunny.livejournal.com]

You are right. I can't read. I've changed the information in the original post.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, the three I can see from my porch are DEAD, or nearly so. Replacing the trees would be great, but I would not rather have a dead tree than no tree.

[jwg.livejournal.com]

Quite a few years ago the two ash trees in my yard in Cambridge got it or something like it so I had them removed. They have been replaced by some Norway Maple "weeds" which are now about as tall but much uglier.

Healthy ash at 20 Quincy St.

[jacob kramer (from livejournal.com)]

A neighbor has requested the removal of what appears to be a healthy Ash tree in front of 20 Quincy St. --- she claims that the roots are damaging her driveway. The complaint seems unrelated to the Ash Borer infestation, and it would be a shame to loose a healthy part of the Urban Forest at a time when we are loosing so many due to insects.

There is currently a petition affixed to the tree for passers-by to sign. I'd encourage everyone to come to the hearing on the 25th to make sure that we are balancing removal with conservation of healthy trees, a strategy recommended here (http://www.emeraldashborer.info/documents/conserve_ash.pdf) by the Nature Conservancy.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_meej_/]

For what it's worth in helping folks anticipate what's likely to come - unfortunately I've got to be the bearer of bad news: they won't necessarily be able to be replaced in the same locations particularly soon.

For bigger trees, it can be very, very difficult to remove enough of the stump and root systems when they're in the sidewalk tree pits without damaging and rebuilding a whole lot of sidewalk, especially when (as is often the case for older bigger trees) they're in, around, over, and so on various utilities. Unlike a tree in a yard, you can't easily just "pull" the stump of older trees, and can't always get a grinder in to take it out. The best case solution is to either wait a few years for the stump to decompose on its own below grade so it can be cleaned out, or to cut a new tree pit somewhere nearby and plant a new tree a little distance away. Hopefully the City is planning on the latter, but I don't have any info on that.

I do know for a fact that the City did preventive treatment on at least some Ash trees that were in good condition (I'm 100% sure about the ones in Kenney Park, and pretty sure that there were also others around the City that were treated as well). For ash trees that are already unhealthy, though, the pretreatment doesn't do much good.

[avjudge]

When I moved in here 10 years ago, a tree had recently been removed from in front of my house. I requested a replacement (got a red maple), and they were able to put it 2 sidewalk squares away, which for my purposes is just as good. (They were going to put it in the next sidewalk square to the original location, but I realized that would put it right under the power supply lines to my house, so we moved it one more square.)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_meej_/]

Yes, that's exactly what I meant by "a new tree pit somewhere nearby" - it's just that sometimes a few sidewalk panels in one direction is a driveway, and in the other direction is the water line, or in front of the front door of the house which some folks don't want, or...

Anyway, here's hoping that this is what the City is intending. I know there's a comprehensive effort to increase the City's tree canopy overall, so I can't imagine these won't get replaced.

[avjudge]

Of course you're right, and I was lucky - in my case, the other side of the original tree's site was my drive; on the side we used, there were just 2 squares free (the one the tree was originally going in, then the one it's in), then a water line (w/access hatch), then my front steps.

As a northern NH native, soon to retire there, I do fear for our Northeast forests - we've lost the elm and - to our south - the chestnut, beech is fighting disease, hemlock has the woolly adelgid, now the ash is going, and is it just a matter of time before the Asian longhorn beetle gets into a wild forest where eradication is impossible? I've read that eastern oak species are susceptible to sudden oak death, thought it's currently only found in the west; with modern travel, can it stay that way? What will be left?

[george458john.livejournal.com]

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