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| Volunteer Richard Salas explains to a resident the purpose of tree inventory |
If you have noticed people wearing yellow vests wandering around your neighborhood, chances are that they are part of the the corps of volunteers working with the Tree Commission to complete the street tree inventory. Prior to 2017, at least half of the street trees had been inventoried for the purpose of their maintenance and future design and planning as trees become damaged or diseased. This year, volunteers working in teams of two have uploaded photos and data on 1500 more trees.
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| Richard Salas measuring the spread of a street tree's canopy |
Street trees are those that are within two feet of a sidewalk or curb. In the absence of either, any tree growing within eight feet of the roadside is considered a street tree. Volunteer Richard Salas is pictured above measuring the spread of the tree canopy. The tree's estimated height and diameter at breast height is also recorded.
Our inventory grows each year at the Tree Commission completes its mission to plant as many trees as funds will allow. High Street gained eighteen trees this fall, raising its total inventory to 229, barely one fourth the amount of street trees that shaded High Street in the year 1853, but next spring, forty more are scheduled to be added. Twenty-one trees were planted this fall on Carter, Temple, Oak, Washington, Merrill, Kent, Ashland, Merrimack, Ferry, Pheasant Run and Arlington Streets. Examples of a few are pictured below.
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| Princeton Sentry added in front of 62 Washington Street |
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| Three Snowgoose Cherry Trees have new homes in front of 1 Pheasant Run |
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| A leafless Zelkova Musachino at 8 Carter Street |
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| Tree Lilac in front of 47 Ashland Street |
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| A Sergeant Cherry at12 Merrill Street |
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| Coming up from Toppans Lane, you might notice these two Sergeant Cherry Trees at 260 High Street. |
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| Flowering Cherries at 22 Ferry Street |
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| Japanese Tree Lilac at 6 Pheasant Run |
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The tree canopy in
Newburyport continues to increase thanks to Friends of Newburyport Trees fundraising
efforts reaching out to individuals and companies that share our vision of a greener city. While one hundred and sixteen street trees have taken root across the city in 2017, many more trees are springing up on private property and industrial park land. Tree Commissioners Connie Preston and Dave Dylewski are consulting with school administration at the Nock Molin Middle School for an extensive planting project. Using donations from The Newburyport Choral Society, Corliss Brothers Nursery and the Bodenrader Family for their Memorial Oak Tree, there are sixteen new trees already on the school grounds. A-W Airflow Industry Inc at 52 Parker Street recently added some trees to their property in the industrial park and a Community Preservation Fund grant of $13,000 will allow the Tree Commission to reforest Gateway Front Gate starting in the spring of 2018. This triangular shaped island at Three Roads where the existing trees and shrubs are in poor condition will benefit from a much needed facelift and create a beautiful western gateway to Newburyport.
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| White Oak on the grounds of the Nock/Molin donated by the Bodenrader Family in memory of their beloved son, Andrew Bodenrader |
The Friends of
Newburyport Trees are your stewards to reforest our city. Please stand
with us and give us your charitable support!
www.fontrees.org
email: fontrees@gmail.org
P.O Box 1155
Newburyport, MA 01950
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