Tree-lined, canopied streets add more than beauty and character to a town. They do more than make our streets safer, more than raise property values, more than contribute to a vibrant business community.
Trees are the natural machinery that helps keep our environment well-regulated, clean, and healthy. Roots filter water to clean streams and wetlands. Trunks and branches provide shelter for animals and birds, remove pollution from the air, create sound barriers and windbreaks and shade that reduce the costs of cooling and heating our homes and businesses. Leaves, which scientists have called the best machines we have to do the job, pull from the air the carbon dioxide that’s heating our planet and causing the increasingly intense storms and more frequent flooding we have been experiencing. And, not to underestimate the value of their beauty, people like to live and linger in beautiful places.
The Town has the resources to purchase and plant a limited number of trees but not enough for the time-intensive job of watering individuals scattered around town. Since newly-planted trees need sufficient watering for their first three critical years while they develop a healthy root system, in 2016, the DPW came up with a public-private partnership we can all love.
The town is now accepting requests to plant a tree in the town-owned setback from the road abutting your yard (about 20 feet) as soon as this fall.
- You choose from a selection of species & agree to keep the tree watered for its first 3 growing seasons.
- The Town will purchase and plant a 2-1/2” diameter, approx. 5′ – 6′ tall tree & will give you a watering bag and specific instructions for future care.
If your yard has room somewhat near the road for an (almost) Free Street Tree, contact the Arbor Resource Committee (BARC): [email protected] 781-275-3536
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