Alexandria Real Estate Equities

OP-ED: Resident Concern About Loss of Hundreds of Trees During Redevelopment Project

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Samatha Rao VuppalaShade trees in the Arsenal on the Charles complex. (The following piece was submitted by Sharon Bromberg-Lim, a member of Trees for Watertown)

A large real estate equities firm arrives in a small New England town. Based in California, the firm has rolled into many towns before, bought up properties big and small, and plunked down buildings. This project is just one of many investments that the firm owns. The firm says it must cut down more than 200 trees to put up its buildings.

Environment

Tree Planted for Arbor Day First of 100 Planned Around Watertown in 2021

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Trees for WatertownTeam members from Hartley Greymont tree service company and Watertown Department of Public
Works help to install the new Dawn Redwood tree planted at the Lowell School on Arbor Day, 2021. The following piece was written and submitted by James Briand of Trees for Watertown Watertown:

Tree Warden Gregory Mosman celebrated Arbor Day last week with the planting of a magnificent Dawn Redwood at the Lowell School, assisted by Steven Kendall representative of tree service provider Hartney Greymont and former Deputy Tree Warden for the City of Boston. Joining Mosman and Kendall were volunteers Marbin Sanchez and Jon Quinn, and David Andrad of the Watertown Department of Public Works. The tree planting was recorded by Trees for Watertown board member Jessica Grimsby, who is preparing a short how-to video to encourage residents to plant trees on their own property. Next year Arbor Day will turn 150 years old.

Forestry Supervisor

Meet the New Tree Warden at Watertown Group’s Online Event

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Trees for Watertown invites residents to meet the new Watertown Tree Warden/Forestry Supervisor during an online event on Nov. 11. The group sent out the following announcement:

Please join us via Zoom on 

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11 (VETERANS DAY)6 PM – 7:30 pmfor a very special event!TFW is delighted to be welcoming GREGORY MOSMAN, MCAWatertown’s new Forestry Supervisor-Tree Wardenat TFW’s 2020 Annual Meeting! Greg Mosman comes to Watertown with 18 years managing Boston’s public forest of over 37,000 shade trees.  We are immensely lucky to have his experience!

Around Town

Watertown Residents Can Request a Tree be Planted in Front of Their Homes

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The following announcement was provided by Trees for Watertown:

Are you trying to forget our brutal summer that featured heat wave after heat wave? Now it’s official: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that June through August 2020 was the hottest summer on record for Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. As hot as it was, on walks around the neighborhood (what else was to be done during a global pandemic?), I felt instant relief as I passed beneath the green canopies of street trees. The immediate cool I felt was not only due to the leafy parasol above sheltering me from direct sunshine, it was also thanks to the lack of heat radiating off asphalt and sidewalks, which store up solar gain and turn our streets into ovens. Evaporation from trees helps cool the air, too.

Letters

LETTER: Resident Wants Tree to be Saved, Provides Cooling in Summer

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To whom it may concern:

I’m writing to add my voice in support of preservation of the public shade tree at 142 Forest Street, which by Mass. State law is receiving a public hearing today.  

I’ve heard from multiple concerned Watertown residents about the risk to this tree. All reports indicate that this is a vigorous, healthy pin oak which is providing significant benefits to the neighborhood and if preserved and protected should have decades of healthy service ahead.  

In sweltering hot weather, large-canopy urban trees like this oak play a critical role in cooling city neighborhoods.

Forestry Supervisor

LETTER: Full Time Forestry Supervisor Key to Protecting Watertown’s Tree Canopy

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On behalf of Trees for Watertown, I want to publicly thank our DPW, and in particular Bob DiRico — who is Acting Forestry Supervisor on top of his already-full-time job as Supervisor of Parks and Cemeteries — for the care they’re taking of our town trees during this extended period both without a full-time Forestry Supervisor/Tree Warden and now with reduced DPW staffing because of the pandemic. As we all know we had a very severe windstorm yesterday. Watertown’s tree canopy took a real beating. Our DPW did a tremendous job responding to this. Bob DiRico and his support team were up until 11:30 last night working on clearing the worst of the damage and already were at it again early this morning.

Environment

Plan Calls for Planting Hundreds of Trees in Watertown

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Town officials seek to plant 250 trees a year in Watertown, some of which will be done by the Town, but others will be done by non-municipal groups. Those groups include Trees for Watertown. Pictured here, Watertown resident David Jay of Trees for Watertown plants a tree outside Hosmer Elementary School in honor of Arbor Day. Hundreds of trees will be planted in Watertown each year as part of an effort to increase the number of street trees and tree canopy in town. The Tree Planting Program calls for planting 2,500 trees over 10 years.