Dear Mayor-Elect Lungo-Koehn:
Congratulations on your victory! Your campaign was clearly built on great organization, a depth of support from your followers and a message that resonated. I spoke to you briefly on the phone during the campaign and was impressed that you were willing to make time for a call. Now the hard part starts, and I’d like to offer you some thoughts to consider as you start planning for your new term.
I am concerned about our climate. There is much that the City can do to adapt to climate change and to mitigate it. The one activity that can do both is to plant more street trees. On the adaptation side, trees reduce the heat island affect and keep our city cooler as the planet warms. A full canopy of properly maintained trees (not one here and there) can buffer the winds that will accompany increasingly severe storms. Trees take up water, and their roots can help water to infiltrate into the ground, reducing the amount of flooding that the city experiences in these storms. Trees also take up carbon and contribute to the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from the city.
Trees have all sorts of other benefits as well. Viewing trees helps the sick to heal and reduces stress levels. Trees beautify our city. Trees reduce pollution levels in the air. They keep our houses and sidewalks cooler and more livable on hot days. Street trees even increase property values.
But the previous administration did not put enough funding into the budget to even maintain the number of street trees we have. The number of street trees is steadily declining. There is a backlog of 300 stumps awaiting grinding out and replacement with trees, and nearly as many dead trees awaiting removal. What does it say about our city to have these eyesores greeting us at every turn? The DPW’s staffing levels are woefully inadequate to tackle this backlog. A contractor could be hired to grind out the stumps and plant new trees, or additional personnel hired to eliminate the backlog and better care for the trees we have.
TreesMedford, which I cochair, is an advocacy group with a full plate of activities and concerns. We are working to secure funding to plant more trees for Medford, with a successful $20,000 grant from DCR under our belt and an $84,000 proposal currently under consideration for CPA funding. (While it is possible to get grants for planting trees if the City's budget for planting trees does not diminish, maintaining trees and grinding stumps is a tough sell.) We are strategizing about how to get funding for a tree inventory so that Medford can evaluate the trees it has and develop a succession plan for trees as they age out. We are concerned that Medford contractors add mulch “volcanoes” to the base of street trees in a way that can damage the bark and cause the tree to girdle itself, prematurely spelling death to the trees that are Medford's investment and heritage. Better communication with contractor staff of the proper way to mulch trees is needed. We support a tree ordinance as the right way to ensure that Medford does not lose its character or the community benefits that trees provide.
Thank you for taking the time to think about Medford trees. We are looking forward to working with you on these issues and hope to garner your support for them as you begin your term as Mayor.
Sarah Gerould
TreesMedford Co-Chair