Cambridge Tree Project Bulletin Dec. 12, 1998
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1. Support Open Space acquisition in Cambridge. City Council meets for open comment at 5:30 p.m. on most Mondays. City Council has on the agenda Monday the 14th support for Putnam Park with a petition asking for support signed by Cynthia Jensen and others. There is also support for the Com Energy space becoming open space. If you are interested in receiving the City Council agenda on line, please reply to this email. We copy it off the city web page and annotate it with “ggg” for issues related to greenspace/openspace and “z” for issues related to growth and development in the City.
2. Be specific in your requests: ask for an Italian garden, a New England common, a French allee of trees. Don’t ask for “open space” or you are likely to get some dead grass full of weeds. That was one of the great messages from the Forum on Building Livable Communities at Fanueil Hall, Boston which about a dozen Cantabridgians joined Phillip Rodbell, Jane Calvin, Edith Makra of Mass. Urban Forestry and Massachusetts Community Forestry and urban foresters from around the state.

3. The Park rebuilding department and Larry Acosta have pocketsize pamphlets on construction strategies which minimize damage to trees. Cambridge Tree Project purchased these and distributed them to the Public Planting Committee so that when construction crews are working close to trees, they can maintain our urban forest. These are practical methods including tunneling close to trees, pruning roots rather than just tearing them up, and watering after working near trees. If you know of construction crews working near trees, contact Karen Carmean of Cambridge Tree Project or our arborist Larry Acosta for a copy of the pamphlet to give to them.

4. Summerbridge 8th and 9th graders will be preparing to work with elementary students in Cambridge to prepare for Arbor Day under the leadership of Joel Pollock. They will be using curriculum from Cambridge Tree Project. The Summerbridge students have labeled many of the trees in the park around the high school under the leadership of Chris Dewart. If you haven’t seen the labels yet, please stop by the park. They also wrote a grant for an Area 4 Recycling project providing education on trees and recycling so that they may plant and label and care for more trees in Area 4. Last spring they weeded tree wells on Bishop Allen Drive and mulched trees in Fresh Pond Reservation under the leadership of Ranger Jean. Zeitgiest gallery teamed with some Area 4 residents to write a grant, too.

5. With the help of many citizens, Harvard decided to save the trees and green between Coolidge Hall and the Swedenborg Church. Barbara Callahan is concerned about the large tree in the small park next to the Fogg Museum. The Fogg is planning to build a tunnel between the Fogg and Sackler which many support, and Barbara wants to make certain the the large tree there is not harmed.

6. Have you noticed any tree protection devices which are no longer needed by trees? Or which may actual interfere with the growth of a tree? We are looking for tree protection devices that could be recycled to protect some of the young trees just planted this fall. Barbara Callahan and her friends carry around wire clippers when they go for walks to make certain that old wires around trees do not gird them and kill the trees. Stakes and tree holding devices are useful for the first year but after that can actual make the tree weaker so should be removed. Keep your eyes open and let us know where they are.

7. Haggerty School’s Karen Kosko, librarian, and teacher Alice Mousseau along with 6 classrooms of students, and Ranger Jean of the Water Department and supported by arborist Larry Acosta, are working with a community outreach group from Buckingham, Brown and Nichols to mulch and care for trees around their school. This Friday students from Haggerty will work in half-hour segments with the BB&N students.

8. Have you seen the web page lately? With the help of many folks, the page has been updated and new sections added. Currently we are working on the ordinances we have collected from other states and cities. Once again, copy this and use it to find the web page:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/DoanePerry/homepage.htm

9. We have begun collecting a Cambridge Tree Handbook, including some of the contract language used related to trees. We have included pruning and park contract language. If you know of any guidelines, contract language, rules or suggestions on trees, please let us know so we can incorporate them in the Handbook. We are interested in successful models from other cities and states.

Cambridge Tree Project Calendar:

Dec. 18     Haggerty School Tree care and mulching. For more information, contact Karen Carmean, Cambridge Tree Project 617-547-1413

Jan. 15-16 Mass. Municipal Association Annual Conference Contact 617-426-7272

Jan 20-22  Financing the Urban Forest National Conference, Nebraska City, NE. Contact National Arbor Day Foundation 402-474-5655.

Jan 28-30  New England Grows, Hynes Convention Center, Boston, Mass. Arborists Assn. 508-653-3309.

Feb. 2-3    Tree Wardens Conference, Danvers. Contact Louis Cassasanto 508-365-2842

Feb. 2-3     Trees Utilities National Conference, Nebraska City, NE. Contact the National Arbor Foundation. 402-474-5655.

Feb 19        Trees in the Urban Landscape. Tower Hill Botanic Garden, Boylston. Contact Doug Williams, 508-869-6111 x21

Feb.26        Ecology and the Managed Landscape, Boxborough. Contact Ecological Landscaping Assn. 978-897-7490.