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Home My WebLink About2015-10-08-TREE-min MEETING MINUTES Lexington Tree Committee October 8, 2015, 7:30 AM DPW, 201 Bedford Street, Room 125 Members Present: Chris Filodoro (Superintendent of Public Grounds, Tree Warden), John Frey (chair), Jewel Kuljian, Karen Longeteig, Gerry Paul, Anne Senning, Nancy Sofen, Ginna Johnson (Planning liaison), Suzanne Barry (Selectman liaison), David Rines (guest). Member Absent: Jim Wood 1. Nancy Sofen was appointed scribe. The minutes of the September 10, 2015 meeting were approved as corrected. 2.Tree Bylaw Removal Applications and Activity: Chris expects to get to the six remaining bylaw applications by the end of the week. There is a large site on Hartwell Place, which is the first commercial bylaw site he’s reviewed and has larger setbacks. They are removing 49 trees with a total dbh of 495”, to build a parking garage. The cost of the permit is about $5K, and they will need to replant 165 trees. 3.Lexington Center Tree Planting: It is important to replace trees in the center this fall, so Chris has a target date of October 15 for planting. Matt Foti’s growers did not want to dig the London Plane trees recommended by the Tree Committee, so he suggested elms or honey locusts. Matt has found 5 elms of suitable size and will look for more to fill the order. Chris will email an update. 4.Fall 2015 Tree Planting: Anne and Jewel each have 11 sites to visit, combinations of setback and street trees. Residents who live at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Maple St. have requested trees, as has the Garden Club for in front of the Post Office. Schicktels will ship the bareroot trees the last week in October. Anne missed the Colonial Times deadline, but her article is in this week’s Minuteman and Nancy will ask that it be linked to the web site so that others can share the link. Gerry will send to his “My Neighborhood” mini-list serve as well as to TMMA and Lexington list serves. Jewel has sent to the Lexington At Home group and Merriam Hill Association. Suzie will contact Bettina McGimsey to find out requirements for posting on PTO and PTA list serves. LexMedia, Facebook and Twitter were also suggested. Nancy will create a flyer for the Community Center Open House on October 17, and for the town’s flu clinic and Lexington Conservation Stewards Open House on October 24. Jewel noted that new trees on East Emerson Rd. are failing again.Chris has ordered new truck-mounted watering tank and will hire a second person to water. 5.Tree Inventory: Arborist David Rines of Arlington told of his experiences taking inventory of Boston’s Public Garden 4 years ago, and also updating the Esplanade inventory. He has worked with handheld GPS locators and paper maps, collecting 15-20 pieces of information on each tree. Chris and the TC explained what has been done to date with the 6 completed precincts, and what we’d like done to finish the last 3 precincts. There was a question of whether we want the coding to be the same, or if we can limit to fewer than the original 32 attributes. The answer may lie in old minutes. Chris will provide David with a map and Anne will let him know the total number of trees inventoried in the first 6 precincts, so that David may prepare a cost estimate to inventory trees only in street right-of-ways and parks in those precincts. He may provide a breakout price for park trees, which we know to be town trees. An acceptable bid would be either a total cost, or a day or hourly rate along with an estimate of what could be done in a day. Chris will then communicate the proposal to Anne. 6.Residential Policy Committee (RPC) Tree Initiatives: Ginna Johnson explained that Planning will bring a long list of warrant articles to Town Meeting as a result of RPC’s listening sessions, and that RPC’s work is strengthened if they have expertise, support and collaboration from the Tree Committee (TC). Gerry reviewed his handout from the RPC meeting, feedback from residents on the proposals, and shared Springfield’s bylaw on significant trees. Recognizing that the current tree bylaw isn’t fulfilling its purpose of preserving the environmental benefits and town character provided by large shade trees, we discussed and refined the proposals to be placed on the warrant. Some specifics are to be worked out at future meetings. Prohibit removing non-invasive, non-hazard/ non-elevated risk trees with a. diameter greater than 30” in setback (where significant construction). These criteria are clearly defined ANSI standards. An appeal process for hardship may be added. This was approved to appear on the warrant. Require tree consultation for removal of trees greater than 30” diameter in b. situations not governed by the tree bylaw. This initiative would be difficult to implement, and will be considered again next year. Designate certain roads as “Scenic Roads”. c.The TC supports this Planning Board initiative. TM would pass an enabling bylaw, then PB would designate specific roads as Scenic Roads. This would preserve both trees and stone walls by not requiring that these roads conform to state minimum dimensions when rebuilt. Give incentives for planting of native canopy trees. d. The Tree Bylaw would be amended to give double credit for mitigation trees planted from a list of proposed trees generated by the Tree Committee. (Appendix 1 to these minutes). The original two lists of proposeded trees, with a tiered incentive, will be simplified to a single incentive and a merged list. To be decided is whether to require that the trees also be of a minimum caliper that is larger than the current requirement. This was approved for the warrant. A “stick” approach, i.e. calculating fines based on area rather than diameter of trees removed, was postponed until next year, to be considered should the “carrot” approach not be sufficient. Hold a “Tree Summit” / Perform Outreach. e. The one-time summit would bring together representatives from departments and committees who govern schools, parks, sidewalks, and other interests whose duties affect, or could be affected by, the placement of trees. The expected outcome would be to clearly state town values regarding trees, and also to agree to policies and procedures particularly around new tree planting sites. Other outreach ideas include holding an information workshop for residents who want setback trees (a resident’s idea presented at the RPC meeting), and holding precinct-wide meetings to discuss trees. It was proposed that these happen after spring TM. Other ideas coming from the RPC meeting include developing a master plan and long- range policy for streets that would most benefit from underground wires so that trees have room to grow (Woburn St., Mass. Ave.), and removing redundant sidewalks (Forest St.) Ginna also suggested that the mandatory contractor tree protection procedures in the Tree Bylaw be enforced, and perhaps stiffened by a fine. 7.Update on Mass. Ave. Sidewalk Paving (between Percy & Bloomfield): Dismayed that there were only two tree wells in the new sidewalk, Gerry and Jim had met with Dave Pinsonneault. They will meet again on Thursday, 10/15 to choose more planting sites. 8.Tree Committee Web Page Update/Revision: Nancy was authorized to work with town web master Kathy Santos to update the committee’s web pages. 9.Tree Management Manual Revision: Is still in process. 10.News about Visitor’s Center and the Beech Tree: Karen talked with Economic Development Director Melissa Tintocalis. We can’t make plans until we see plans for the new Visitor’s Center. Suzie reports that 2 alternatives were presented to the Permanent Building Committee. It’s not clear whether this area is part of the Battle Green master plan. If not, a master plan for the area should be contracted which looks at architecture, landscape, programming and trees in its totality. We should stay engaged. 11.Bare Root Tree Sources: John found more sources at New England GROWS, Inc. Product Directory: – J.C. Bakker & Sons Nurseries and The Rhode Island Nurseries. No discussion. 12.A topic to be discussed at the next meeting is the need to protect trees at the Farmers’ Market site from root compaction. Next regular meeting November 12, 2015, 7:30 am at DPW, 201 Bedford St., Room 125. ADDENDUM 1: CANOPY TREES PROPOSED FOR MITIGATION DOUBLE CREDIT Quercus (Oak): including Bur, Chestnut, Pin, Red, Scarlet, Swamp White, White, Shumard (swamp red) and Black Tilia americana (basswood) Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree) Catalpa speciosa Cladrastis kentuckea (yellowwood) Fagus grandifolia (American beech) Gymnocladus dioicus (Kentucky coffeetree) Liquidamber styraciflua (sweetgum) Nyssa sylvatica (tupelo) Magnolia acuminata (cucumber magnolia) Chamaecyparis thyoides (Atlantic white cedar, full size only) Chamaecyparis nootkatensis (Alaskan white cedar) Taxodium distichum (Bald Cypress) Abies concolor (Colorado fir) Acer rubrum (Red Maple) Acer saccharum (Sugar Maple) Ulmus Americana ‘Princton’ ('Princeton' Elm only) Aesculus (Horsechestnut) Platanus occidentalis (Sycamore) Platanus acerifolum 'Bloodgood' (London Plane Tree) Carya (Hickory)p Nyssa sylvatica (Tupelo) Pinus strobus (Eastern white pine)' Gleditsia triacanthos (honeylocust) Robinia acacia (Black locust) Prunus serotina (Black cherry)