2010-01-14-TREE-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Lexington Tree Committee - Minutes January 14, 2010 Present: John Frey, Chairman; Karen Longeteig; Gerry Paul; Anne Senning; Nell Walker; Jane Beswick; Alexandra Kahn. 1. Gerry Paul was appointed as scribe and the minutes of December 13, 2009 meeting were approved as amended. 2. Tree Warden’s Agenda Items: a) Report on applications and activity postponed to next meeting. b) Tree Inventory/Nursery i) There is a concern about whether all the funds appropriated from Town Meeting are actually available for tree planting and whether there are sufficient funds in next years budget to plant trees harvested from the Nursery. ii) Selection of trees for spring planting - A working group will draft a list of preferred trees. The working group will meet on Feb. 9 at 9:00 am. Anne will request a meeting room. Criteria for tree selection include: native, shade (as opposed to ornamental), non-grafted. iii) Trees to be harvested this year from the Nursery have been selected. There are 40+ trees of which 30 are crab apples. In hindsight, there is a belief that planting crab apples was a mistake because they are non-native, invasive and hard to manage. It was proposed that they could be planted off berm or on school or cemetery locations. Anne will work to identify possible street planting locations for the other trees. The trees to be harvested have been marked. iv) We discussed whether planting under wires should be ever be considered . Excluding planting under wires eliminates half of the possible planting locations in Lexington. After much discussion, the committee voted in favor of planting under wires when other planting locations in an area had been exhausted. There was recognition that the appropriate tree species (e.g. Cotinus obovatus - smoke tree) must be planted in such locations and work must be done to identify appropriate planting locations. The tree warden makes the final decision where trees are planted. c. Proposed Warrant Article for By-Law Change and Tree Manual Changes - The committee supported the proposed changes to the By-law to close a loop hole and remove ambiguity. We also agreed with the following change to the Tree manual: "2. Undesirable Tree Species The Norway maple (Acer platanoides) was re-included as a Protected Tree on -- /--/-- by vote of the Selectmen, to recognize the fact that many large, healthy Norway maples contribute to the total area of the Town’s tree canopy. However, removal of Norway maples is still strongly encouraged when they are crowded, unhealthy or below 6” in diameter. Tree of Heaven, Common and Glossy Buckthorn are not considered as Protected Trees under the definitions in the Lexington Tree Bylaw, §120-3. (Further information can be found in Section IX, Invasive Species.)" d. Battle Green Master Plan - discussion proposed until next meeting. e. Commemorative Tree Status - Jane Beswick reported that all activity was current.