Three years ago, driven by data showing a steady decline of Northampton’s public shade tree canopy, citizens lobbied the city to adopt a comprehensive municipal shade tree program to enhance our quality of life and strengthen our climate resilience.
To kindle public interest in street trees, residents worked with the state’s community and urban forester, Mollie Freilicher, to conduct a highly visible, all-volunteer sample tree inventory.
Citizens also provided credible research to the mayor and City Council about why investing in shade trees as public infrastructure provides impressive financial, health and ecological return. Finally, they shared as inspiration the example of Amherst’s successful tree program.
The city of Northampton listened.
Flash forward to upcoming Arbor Day on Friday, April 28, and thanks to a supportive mayor and City Council, here’s our proud report. Foremost, Northampton has a permanent, qualified tree warden within the Department of Public Works, Richard Parasiliti, who partners with a skilled Public Shade Tree Commission to advance a plan to re-tree our walkable city.
The tree warden and commission hold public meetings twice monthly with long to-do lists in between, and regularly welcome featured guests to meetings. Last meeting, we met with Amy Cahillane, director of the Downtown Northampton Association, and left with specific actions to plant downtown trees, knowing that shoppers spend more money and linger more along streets lined with trees.
Second, for the first time in Northampton’s history, thanks to a matching grant from the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, we have a citywide public shade tree inventory – a baseline for prioritizing where to plant, prune, address disease, replace dying trees and care for our best specimen trees.
So, what did our tree inventory find? It found that Northampton has nearly 10,000 public shade trees worth $16 million, providing $1.3 million yearly in energy savings, carbon sequestration, stormwater mitigation, and property value increase. It found that half our trees are in good to excellent health, and half are in fair to poor health. It found that, while maple trees dominate our canopy (30 percent), recent tree plantings have increased species diversity and improved the age and health distribution of our canopy.
The inventory also identified 2,000 new planting sites along the public right of way, and gave us information to guide planting such as the constraints of utility wires and tree belts. In sum, the inventory underscored our 60 years of deferred attention to trees, but gave us a road map for reforesting our streets.
Consequently, and third, the Tree Commission is developing a 10-year plan which prioritizes plantings along streets that offer the greatest public benefit. Transitioning from reactive to proactive planting and pruning, the city will focus this year on planting 100 new trees along South Street, a gateway that needs both traffic calming (something that street trees are eminently good at), and shade and beauty for pedestrians.
Our plan will continue to emphasize “setback” plantings on streets that have narrow or nonexistent tree belts, offering to plant free trees in the front yards of property owners willing to water them regularly. It will also set up a schedule to regularly prune trees – promoting, for example, growth of a single trunk in young trees, and improving the health and the safety of our mature trees.
Fourth, we are stretching every dollar invested in our trees by attracting and utilizing volunteers. This Earth Day, students from Northampton High School planted trees at the busy downtown intersection of Bridge and Hawley streets.
On Arbor Day, volunteers with Tree Northampton, a newly formed “friends of” nonprofit organization, will distribute free tree seedlings in front of City Hall. Tree Northampton (treenorthampton.org) helps train and organize volunteers to plant, prune and water young street trees, filling a crucial role in the effort to reforest Northampton rapidly and affordably. Volunteers leave a legacy with every tree they plant and tend.
Lastly, the diligence, collaboration, and data-driven approach of Northampton’s tree warden and Tree Commission have earned the confidence and budgetary backing of our elected officials. They have come to see that every dollar we invest in street trees returns a net $3 to $5 in stormwater mitigation, clean air, saved energy, increased property value and economic stimulation over the tree’s lifetime.
What began as a citizen-driven campaign to protect and grow our street trees is now an established city priority. It is rewarding to live in a community where elected officials and city employees are willing and eager to learn from and partner with informed citizens to improve public welfare.
Lilly Lombard is the chairwoman of the Northampton Public Shade Tree Commission.