Keeping a Watchful Eye on the ABC’s Street Trees
When ABC board member Esther Brill walks the streets of our neighborhood she’s often paying attention to street trees. Or more specifically, looking for missing street trees or trees that need replacing.
Brill, a longtime ABC resident, has been paying attention since 2017, ever since Dave Burnet, who was a fellow board member, told the board he’d noticed a significant number of Beverly Street residences lacked street trees on their City-owned “tree lawns.” Soon after that discussion, Brill and the neighborhood association began working closely with the City’s Forestry Division, which is responsible for providing a tree lawn tree for every house location that has a viable planting site.
Brill studied the City’s online Tree Map and realized there were several “planting sites” in the neighborhood that had never had trees. On behalf of the neighborhood association, she asked City Forestry for trees for the designated locations. As a result of this initiative and the on-going effort to replace trees that over time have been removed, some three dozen new trees have been planted by the City in our neighborhood since 2017.
Now, she says, “we’re on what I’d call an annual cycle. Every year a few trees that may have died, are failing to thrive, or pose a safety hazard, as identified by City Forestry, are cut down. Tree stump grinding and lawn restoration occurs from late June to late October. Depending on the variety of the replacement tree, planting replacement trees occurs either in the Fall or the Spring.”
Marianne Pastecki, ABC board vice president, says neighborhood property owners who need a tree replaced have a list of trees – “a palette” – from which to choose. Initially, the City contacts the homeowner when a tree is taken down about choosing a replacement. If the owner doesn’t respond, the neighborhood association requests the palette from Forestry staff and follows up with the owner via email. “Being pro-active,” Brill adds, “is the reason we no longer have missing trees in our neighborhood.”
You can identify the kind of tree you have in your tree lawn by viewing the City’s Tree Map. You can also get information on ordering an ABC Streets TREE TAG (see separate box) to attach to your own tree-lawn tree.
Interesting Quick Facts…
1. The City’s Forestry Division manages about 70,000 trees located along City streets, parks and cemeteries. Services provided include tree pest management, pruning, planting, removal, inspection and responding to public requests.
2. The City has 3,500 ash trees and 22 of them are in the ABC neighborhood. The City provides an ongoing treatment program to prevent the Emerald Ash Borer.
3. The most unusual tree-lawn tree in the ABCs is the Amur Cork Tree on Darwin Street due to its unique bark.