New Street Trees Springing to Life

Tree Hugger Assistants

 Several of the most recently planted street trees by the Newburyport Tree Commission are just starting to bloom now. My assistant tree huggers, recently furloughed from their volunteer positions at Anna Jaques and Avita enjoyed getting out of the house for a ride around town.

A Japanese Lilac on Garnet Street beginning to sprout.

Magnolia at the triangle in front of Famous Pizza.

This Sergeant Cherry on School Street should be gorgeous in a few more days.

Japanese Lilac on Bromfield should be beautiful, although this variety is one of the last to bloom each year.

Purchase Street residents should enjoy the scent of the white blossoms on this Japanese Lilac by Memorial  Day.

Cherry Trees on Purchase Street

Okame Cherry Tree on Lafayette Street

One of two Crabapple Trees on Columbus Street

Multiple flowering trees at the triangle across from Famous Pizza on Storey Ave.

Cherry Trees planted over a year ago now starting to pay dividends for Bartlet Mall

Friends of Newburyport Trees Gives Facelift to City's Gateway

By now, most Newburyport residents will have noticed a new look in front of Famous Pizza at the intersection of Storey Ave and Ferry Road. We have Friends of Newburyport Trees to thank for that. The design for the plantings of fourteen new trees was done by Jean Berger and Tim Heatwole.

Twenty foot existing Elm surrounded by fourteen new trees at the Storey Ave entrance to Newburyport

Three Gingkos, a Maple and a Tupelo will grace us with a range of bright and dark reds, buttery yellow and orange leaves in fall, while the smaller magnolias, crabapples and cherries will be the first to come alive in spring with white and pink flowers.  The trees were planted around a twenty foot existing elm in the center of the triangle which was in need of pruning. Unfortunately, all the original trees and shrubs were in poor condition as deemed by an arborist and therefore removed to make way for the fourteen new plantings.

 Customers at Famous Pizza will enjoy the view of white and pink flowers next spring on the cherry, magnolia and crabapple trees.  Look for the buttery yellow leaves in fall on the three Gingkos and a range of reds on one Maple and two Tupelos. 

Gateway I Project Design by Tim Heatwole and Jean Berger

Solar Energy: The Equivalent of Planting Trees While Sitting on My Ass

Nine solar panels on the dormer's south facing rubber roof

    Joe and I finally bit the bullet.  We invested in solar panels for our home. He had been trying to convince me for years, but I'd held out, hearing mixed messages about the use of natural resources and energy to make the panels vs their benefit. Also, our house was designed for passive solar heat and I feared solar panels would thwart that effort, adding yet another layer of material for the sun's rays to penetrate.  My husband, a mechanical engineer with a minor in alternative energy, explained that the sun heated the interior of the home through the windows, not through an insulated roof. I didn't believe him and I really wasn't interested in spending thousands of dollars to find out if he was right.
     We looked into geothermal heating and when that estimate proved to be much more cost prohibitive than imagined given the necessary retrograding of our duct system, we opted for the installation of two Mitsubishi mini-split heat/AC wall mounted units. Since their installation five years ago,  we've been able to reduce our reliance on oil heat almost entirely, resorting to it only on the coldest days of the year when the ductless units are the least efficient.
    Inspired by friends that had gone solar (Thank you Johnny Coletta, Kathleen Sousa, Terri Berns and Tom Jones) I finally succumbed to the solar movement.  The rapid disappearance of federal tax incentives with Donald Trump at the helm helped to light a fire under my ass.  We set out to get bids from three solar companies.  Joe was exceedingly thrilled  with my change of heart, and we agreed to spend some of our nieces and nephews' inheritance to foot the bill. Thanks, kids, hope you will be able to enjoy more life on Earth instead of whatever might be left over in our estate?
     We set out to get bids from three solar companies this spring, and by August 26 at 3:30pm, we had 17 solar panels up and running. Only one of the three companies, Revision Energy was willing to install panels on a rubber roof section of our house, making the decision a little less complicated. And as of today at 6PM on Sept 16, our data shows we have collected 509 kWh, sparing our atmosphere 788 lbs. of CO2, the equivalent of planting twenty trees in twenty-two days.

A complicated system of gadgets between the solar company and National Grid, but the meter on the right  currently shows a 98 kWh surplus after twenty-two days of our energy use since the solar panels were installed.

     We downloaded the Solar Edge app on our phones that recalculates that data every thirty minutes. Each night, I record our daily kWh consumption shown on the National Grid meter and the number of kWh collected each day form the solar panels. We heat and cool with electricity, run one of our cars on electricity and all of our appliances are electric so our usage is always quite high, anywhere from 350 to 1000 kWh per month.  We currently have a surplus of 98 kWh. That gap will narrow and reverse as the days get shorter and we'll have to turn on our mini-split heaters, but nevertheless, the sun should provide an annual average of anywhere between 50 to 75% of our usage, depending on car mileage and weather conditions. Without moving a muscle, I know that we are doing the equivalent of planting almost one more tree per day, the single most cost effective and beneficial remedy any of us can do to slow and hopefully reverse catastrophic climate change. A small contribution to the trillion needed to reforest our entire planet.
      Many homes are not well situated to access the sun's energy, but solar power and other renewables can be supported by converting international and domestic mutual funds to ETFs that are devoid of stocks in fossil fuels such as Vanguard's ESGF and VSGX funds.  It's also worth noting that in 2018, only 1.6 % of U.S electricity was generated by solar power. Mexico has now created aggressive incentives to become one of the top ten countries in solar production while currently Germany, Italy and China are the industry leaders. Poco a poco.....

Eight more panels were squeezed onto the main roof of our house. The front porch is of aluminum construction and would not support the weight of panels. There's still plenty of room for Rudolph and company. Hopefully, no coal again this year!

Completed solar project

Kim Kudym is a former member of Friends of Newburyport Trees and the Newburyport Tree Commission. When she is not walking her dogs or looking at her solar app, she is sitting under the shade of a tree in her yard. Kim occasionally contributes to another blog, Walking With Dogs in Greater Newburyport, a photo guide for the best dog friendly places she has discovered since retiring from teaching Spanish at Triton Middle School in 2011. 
   

    

Can Trees Prevent a Climate Apocalypse?

    Are we nearing a climate change driven apocalypse or what? More than 60 humans dead and over 600 still missing in the latest California wildfire? Katrina and Sandy, or Harvey and Maria weren't enough to wake us up? Good God! How much longer will it be before we are all migrating from one geographical location to another to avoid weather disasters?  Dr. Cameron Wake, scientist and climate change institute director at University of UNH reviewed the astounding projections for our not so distant future at a presentation at the Parker River Wildlife Refuge's auditorium. Here in New England, we are unlikely to see much more than summer droughts, but we can expect to see a lot more water in big storm events and many more days of excessive heat.

   Can we even do anything? Well, yes. Dr. Cameron suggested that we are beyond the tipping point with the faster than originally projected glacier melts in Antarctica. Less ice means more blue ocean to absorb the sun and heat the waters giving momentum to more storms, not just sea level rise. Had we done more in the last couple of decades, maybe we could have reversed it, but now we can only slow it down by redoubling efforts to discontinue use of fossil fuels and steamroll ahead with wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower. We can help promote these technologies by converting stocks and mutual funds in our retirement portfolios to ETF funds specifically designed for such. (Vanguard just opened two new ETF funds, ESGF (domestic stock) and VSGX(international stock)  Not only would our money then be invested in preserving the environment for our families' futures, but we stand to gain financially as these funds are starting to produce much bigger dividends. Just last year, job growth in the renewable energy industry grew as much as 24%, primarily in the solar and wind sectors, with almost the same percentage of job loss happening in the coal industry ( Click here )Dr. Wake’s team at the Sustainability Institute even convinced University of New Hampshire's Board of Trustees to divest 20% of its portfolio from fossil fuel investments and reinvest into funds targeting only renewables. 

From Dr. Cameron Wake's slide presentation at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on November 13

  Most of us don't have enough money in our retirement portfolios to feel like we would be making a difference and would be worried about taking such a risk, especially with the uncertainty of a stock market correction. It might feel like the equivalent of saving one of those terrified trembling bunnies up against a wall in that horrible video of the California Camp Fire someone captured and shared on Facebook. Can we do anything else? At the very least, we can stop buying more shares of funds invested in fossil fuels. But there is something fairly easy and relatively inexpensive that we can all be doing. In fact, it is the single most effective AND economical action that stands to possibly reverse the effects of climate change. Plant trees! Photosynthesis has the amazing power of absorbing carbon dioxide and converting it to oxygen.

   We have so much open space in the industrial park for example that could be filled with trees.  While absorbing carbon emissions in the air, more trees would also be mitigating flood damage. The Newburyport Tree Commission will be doing their best to address this with the industrial park. Meanwhile, In 2018 they planted over one hundred street trees.

     But what about the rest of us?  Do we have any room in our yards for more trees? My husband and I have a larger yard than most Newburyport lots so we been able to add to our canopy. On less than one half acre, we already have thirty-two trees taller than our house, five that we planted ourselves since we moved in.  We later planted six more that are already approaching our second floor. To memorialize our fifteen year old dog this fall, we added a sugar maple in hopes to eventually provide shade to the east side of our house. A wedding gift from my dad and stepmother, a red maple now shades our entire front yard, thriving off the flood waters from our bordering wetlands. Our tree plantings have not been purely altruistic, truth be told.  Our south facing house has lots of large windows and heats up like a greenhouse in the summer. We planted three honey locust trees as close to the front of the house as we could to provide shade and reduce our air conditioning costs. The leaves are the first to go in the fall which opens the house back up to the sun's rays for passive solar heat. The bird watching year round from our windows is phenomenal! A blue spruce that my mother gifted us for a house warming in 1996, bought at a yard sale in a 10 inch plastic pot is now a couple feet short of our roofline.

    If you don't have a yard, or do and just can't fit any more trees, consider donating to Friends of Newburyport Trees who will surely find a spot in town for your tree. Donations of $650 or more are now recognized on the Clipper City Rail Trail Recognition Tree, near the High Street bridge. That amount purchases a street tree that you can designate to honor or memorialize someone and have their name, or yours, be scrolled into a ten inch metal leaf and added to the rail trail tree. 

    I hate to sound like a sales person but the time really is now. Please plant a tree, one way or another. Friends of Newburyport Trees can be reached on Facebook or at the website https://www.fontrees.org  Donations of any amount can be made through PayPal on the website or sent to PO Box 1155, Newburyport, MA 01950. 

The Tree Commission and City Council approved the placement of the recognition tree on the Clipper City Rail trail earlier this year. As donations come in, leaves with names of donors or designated honorees are bolted onto a branch.

The Anne Frank Horse Chestnut Tree

"Beauty remains even in misfortune.  One who is happy will make others happy. One who has courage will never die in misery."

-Anne Frank

Nock Students viewing slide of a horse chestnut tree in bloom at tree dedication assembly

     Anne Frank at the age of thirteen while in hiding from the persecution of the Jews reported in her diary that the only thing she could see out the window at 188 Keizersgracht, Amsterdam were the branches of a horse chestnut tree. It had clusters of white flowers in spring and brilliant orange leaves in the fall. She referred to the tree three times in her last six months of life. Her dad, Otto Frank, the only family member to survive the Holocaust was quoted in 1968 when he read her diary for the first time. He said that Anne had never shown interest in nature. "Still, she longed for it when she felt like a bird in a cage. Only the thought of the freedom of nature gave her comfort."

    And now, thanks to the combined efforts of the Newburyport Choral Society, Friends of Newburyport Trees, Newburyport city officials, school personnel and school volunteer Penny Lazarus, the students at the Nock Middle School will see a horse chestnut tree blossom outside their windows as they await release for their April school vacation. The seventh graders have been studying the Holocaust as part of their curriculum and The Newburyport Choral Society performed Annelies this spring, a full length choral work based on Anne Frank's diary, chosen in the spirit of establishing Newburyport as a place of acceptance for all people. The Choral Society donated the tree to the school, appointing the Nock students its caretakers.

Stone bench dedicated to Anne Frank next to the new Horse Chestnut Street near the Nock School  front entrance

     School volunteer Penny Lazarus is also a member of the Newburyport Choral Society. She organized a dedication ceremony for the tree and stone bench on June 15, 2018. Students first gathered in the auditorium to watch a performance by their peers of a skit about Anne Frank followed by the eighth grade choral group singing "Hallelujah." Many city officials were in attendance including members of the Tree Commission and Mayor Holaday who spoke to Anne Frank's courage and vision of hope against oppression. Quoting from her diary, "I see the world being slowly turned into wilderness.  I hear the approaching thunder that one day will destroy us too and yet when I look at the sky, I feel everything will change for the better." And as the composer who put Anne's words to music, James Whitbourn so perfectly articulated, "It is the text itself of such strength that finds a way to leave an indelible mark of that young girl whose wisdom and perception can teach us all."  Click here to hear Mayor Holaday's remarks)

    Retired High School Teacher, Deb Szabo addressed the students to explain her participation with Penny Lazarus in the selection of the stone with local stone carver Michael Updike at a quarry for the memorial bench (insert picture of bench) Click to listen to Deb Szabo.  Not only did the stone have a symbolic scar, it spoke to them of freedom having been liberated from its likely former location at a Springfield prison.

Dr. George Case, Newburyport Choral Society Director leads moment of silence next to the memorial bench

  Following the indoor ceremony, the audience proceeded outdoors to the tree and bench for remarks by Dr. George Case, Music Director of the Choral Society and a moment of silence. (click here to listen to Dr. Case) Monarch butterflies kept dormant in refrigeration were then released culminating the ceremony. (view release)

Butterflies, a symbol of hope, were released around the Horse Chestnut Tree

Excerpts from The Diary of Anne Frank regarding the horse chestnut tree:

23 February 1944

The two of us looked out at the blue sky, the bare chestnut tree glistening with dew, the seagulls and other birds glinting with silver as they swooped through the air, and we were so moved and entranced that we couldn’t speak. 

18 April 1944

April is glorious, not too hot and not too cold, with occasional light showers. Our chestnut tree is in leaf, and here and there you can already see a few small blossoms.

 13 May 1944

Our chestnut tree is in full bloom. It’s covered with leaves and is even more beautiful than last year.

One Hundred and Five Trees for Spring 2018

    Friends of Newburyport Trees and the Tree Commission have raised enough funds through grants and donations to purchase and care for 105 new street trees. The planting process is taking longer than expected since many of the designated locations are in concrete sidewalks, requiring personnel and equipment from the DPS to cut holes for the pits. The department is already overextended with the ongoing dune restoration on Plum Island Point, but volunteers from the Tree Commission and FONT are pitching in to get them all in the ground as soon as possible. Trees going into brick sidewalks are taken care of by the vendors.  A few of the trees are pictured below. Anyone that has a new tree in front of their home can post a picture on the FONT facebook page or send to me at 978-417-9632.  You can also help by filling the gator bags with water at least once weekly.

Red oak at 22 Ferry Rd.

A Newburyport street tree nearing the end of its life. More than thirty have already been removed to date this year.

Japanese tree lilac at 376 High St.

One of two Hornbeams at 372 High St.

Ironwood at 354 High St.

One of two serviceberry trees at 320 High St.

Tree lilacs at 304 High St.

Sweet gum tree at 283 High St.

Holes being dug for crabapple trees in front of 294 and 296 High St.

Getting trees planted in concrete and brick sidewalks to meet all the demands has been a huge challenge for the DPS and Tree Commission this year.

Two sergeant cherries now frame 278 High St. 

A flowering cherry tree will be planted in the sidewalk opening.

Contact Friends of Newburyport Trees at fontrees@gmail.org to get on the list for a tree in front of your home. Donations can be made through the FONT website: https://www.fontrees.org  There is a PayPal tab. Checks should be mailed to Box 1155, Newburyport, MA 01950 made out to FONT.

Tree Party for Kids at Atkinson Common

Monsters live in this tree named "Tree" at Atkinson Common. But the leaves smell like flowers and the trunk is very smooth.

Good weather held out for Friends of Newburyport Tree's second annual Tree Party for Kids at Atkinson Common this morning. The preschoolers were asked to draw a picture of their favorite tree in the park. Everyone brought a blanket to sit on near the tennis courts and enjoyed their snacks and the fresh air.  Stephanie Pellegrini, a board member of FONT and mother of pre-schoolers herself organized age appropriate activities for the kids as a celebration for Arbor Day. Tomorrow morning will be the first annual Arbor Day event for all ages, with a tree pruning demonstration and a tour of the park. It's a good chance to learn the names of the trees with such a large variety of species as there is in Atkinson Common.

Woodpeckers apparently live in this tree named Bubba

Earliest arrivals to the Tree Party

More mothers towing toddlers

Not everyone wanted to go to the Tree Party. In fact, this little girl absolutely refused, and let everyone know it!

My kind of mother: "You will GO to this tree party and you will LIKE it!!!!"

More guests cautiously approaching having heard about the monsters hiding in "Tree"

Dogs on leash are always welcome at the Tree Party for Kids

Stephanie Pellegrini welcomes the group and begins the festivities

Best blanket ever for a tree party!

Enjoying a warm, sunny day in the park next to Jeannine Murphy's memorial tree for her beloved dog, Echo