It’s been a productive year for trees in Medford. Not only has TreesMedford had some terrific successes, but the City has made some important contributions to our tree canopy.
Perhaps the biggest news is that we received $20,000 from DCR for outreach and new trees in East and South Medford, areas of Medford with the sparsest tree canopy. With that funding, money from a Natural Resource Damage Claim, and funding from the City’s budget, Medford was able to plant over 100 trees. Though that is fewer than the number of street trees that came down in 2019, it is an improvement over previous years.
As part of the DCR grant, TreesMedford volunteers tabled at or were a part of City events and festivals. We attended the Arbor Day tree planting at Hastings Park, tabled at four City events during the summer and fall, and engaged with over 100 residents. In preparation for tabling, we created a banner, an outreach brochure, and an interactive activity for visitors. We are now starting to plan for Arbor Day 2020 and designing a tree hanger for new trees.
In 2019, we also applied for two other grants:
We pursued a Medford CPA grant for trees in parks, based on recommendations in Medford’s Open Space Plan. We presented our grant application at an open meeting in November, and expect to hear about the success of that proposal in January 2020.
We applied for funds from the Medford Community Fund to begin a tree inventory. In December 2019 we heard that we will be able to begin that effort with the $5,000 we received. We will be looking for other sources of funding to augment that activity in 2020. Depending on how many trees Medford has (no one seems to know), the inventory will require many times that to get it finished.
We also started working on our second CPA initiative to support planting trees in areas uphill from land that frequently floods. This will include “the back of the sidewalk” trees in people’s yards. We will be working closely with the Conservation Commission to ensure that we target the right areas.
We have used our monthly meetings to get up to speed on local issues related to trees. Pat Maloney, a Tufts University graduate student and Forestry Department intern working with Tree Warden Aggie Tuden, showed us new maps he has generated documenting new trees planted 2010-18. We heard about a report advocating for trees prepared by the Energy & Environment Committee, and members attended the City Council meeting where Adam Knight presented a separate proposal for a tree ordinance. We learned about the current process for the City’s tree hearings when tree removal is disputed. We discussed possible responses to the problem of known gas leaks that kill or harm the health of city trees. We consulted with Director of Energy and Environment Alicia Hunt about the City’s climate vulnerability assessment and discussed ways to ensure that our efforts dovetail with the projects of the Energy & Environment Office.
The group also worked on making itself more of a presence. First, we conducted a vision/goal setting exercise to prioritize our efforts and develop a mission statement, led by Erica Wood of Mystic River Watershed Association. As part of the DCR Grant, MyRWA started to develop a TreesMedford web page. MyRWA interns working with Erica Wood created numerous posts for the Facebook page about the benefits of trees. TreesMedford has begun to flesh out the web page, adding a blog, photos of Medford trees and other content. An early blog post is an open letter to our new Mayor written by one of the TreesMedford CoChairs about the importance of trees and of expanding the City’s budget for planting and maintaining trees in Medford. We also started and updated a Facebook page. Several members of the group attended open meetings and contributed to the development of Medford’s revised Open Space Plan.
We look forward to 2020 with enthusiasm and energy, hoping that we will be able to accomplish as much or more in 2020 as we did in 2019. Happy New Year!