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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-08-14-TREE-min Lexington Tree Committee Town of Lexington, Massachusetts 201 Bedford Street, Samuel Hadley Public Services Building, Room 125 Minutes, Meeting of August 14, 2014 Attendees: John Frey (Chairman), Jewel Kuljian, Gerry Paul, Anne Senning, Chris Filadoro, (Superintendant of Public Grounds). Absent: Karen Longeteig, Nell Walker, Jim Wood. Gerry Paul took his turn as scribe. 1. Minutes of the July 10, 2014 meeting were approved as amended. 2. Tree removal activity – 1034 sites; trees to 1662/1355 removed; inches to be removed/9836 removed; 7307 trees to be planted/ 3363 planted. 3. Town Tree Inventory plan – Chris is still researching contractors to finish the tree inventory. 4. Chris reported that the 4 remaining Tulip Trees have been planted. He will send an email with the locations. 5. Spring Tree planting – ordering for Fall 2014 planting/planning for spring – discussion postponed. 6. Anne presented the following analysis updated with comments from the meeting: Cost benefit analysis: setback trees vs. street trees Setback trees: The advantages of planting setback trees are the following; they can be planted far back from the street so that they avoid overhead wires, salt spray, salt damage from plows both on the roads and sidewalks and can be planted in areas that allow root growth and in non- compact soil. Another advantage is that in the contract that Lexington DPW enters into with the homeowner the tree becomes the property of the homeowner after a year of successful growth. The disadvantage of a setback tree is the very time-consuming and labor intensive initial work involved in the set up during the 1 year: the contract, placement of the tree, selection of the st species, negotiations both by phone and by e-mail with the homeowner and the planting the tree. Street trees: the advantages of planting street trees are the following; they can be planted in the planting strips which are at least 4 feet wide where there are no wires, or in parks, cemeteries, conservation land, or other public town land. The initial selection of species, and placement of trees does not always need to involve individual homeowners and is therefore less labor intensive than the initial setup of setback trees. Once a tree has been planted the town has jurisdiction over the tree and no homeowner may cut it down without a penalty. The disadvantage of any street tree, which is planted in the planting strip, even a wide planting strip is that it remains vulnerable to salt spray and salt runoff. Another disadvantage is that it never goes off the town maintenance roles. Cost comparison for the removal alone of these two groups of trees: town trees compared to the setback trees over a 30 year period of time at intervals of 10, 20 and 30 years would show a significant savings in favor of setback trees in terms of the forestry staff time, fuel, and equipment. 7. John presented a plan for screening of 46 Brandon St. on the bikeway which has buy in from Garrett Burke, Chris Filadoro and George Grey of Lexington Toyota. The Tree Committee approved the plan 3-1 with Anne Senning dissenting because of the concern that this will set a precedent for other homeowners to expect trees to be planted to screen their property. 8. Nursery: schedule for revamping – Discussion postponed. 9. Ordering of striped Maple trees for Lincoln park – discussion postponed. 10. Placement of 300 th anniversary tags – Gerry reported that he and Karen had placed a large fraction of the tags and work will continue. 11. Hancock St. Beech Tree problematic grading – Chris reported that he has not approved the bylaw site yet and will follow up with the builder. 12. Condition of trees in Lexington Center – a number of members verified that two Silver Lindens on the south side of Mass. Ave. are dead. 13. John informed us that he will produce a draft of the Town Annual Report which is due Sept. 30. 14. Chris reported that there was some watering of the bare root trees planted along Emerson Rd. of which one died. 15. Chris will follow up on the fact that the Honey Locusts planted at Lexington Toyota may be dying from lack of watering. 16. Chris reported that the Concord Ave. sidewalk reconstruction and attendant tree removal will not begin until next year. Next regular meeting: September 11, 7:30 a.m. at DPW