I don’t know what kind of planning or research went into Northampton’s new tree program, where a thousand trees are being planted all over city on the public strips of land that run along our roads.
There is a particularly dense line of young trees planted along Prospect Street from Jackson Street to Cooley Dickinson Hospital. When they have matured, they will eventually form a dense canopy of leaves. Trees are beautiful assets to the city, but planting these thousand trees so close to the streets and public sidewalks will someday pose a significant cost to the city and the environment.
Most of the leaves will fall on pavement, and anything that goes onto the pavement eventually affects water quality in the river. Leaves in the gutter have to be swept up under an agreement the city has signed with the state. Decaying leaves produce phosphorus and other pollutants that can significantly affect water quality in ponds and rivers in the fall.
A tree program that merely provided trees to homeowners to plant on their lawns would have less impact because most of the leaves would stay on lawns where they could be mulched or composted by the property owners.
Will our descendants be stuck for the bills for a large fleet of street sweepers?
Mike Kirby
Northampton