Creating an Urban Forest
The Newburyport Street Tree Committee
By Kathleen Downey
Slender, upright “twigs” stand on sidewalks throughout Newburyport, each attached to a stake for support with a white encasement protecting its base. In time, these twigs will hold buds, flower blossoms, then lush green leaves that will offer shade from the summer’s heat—and awash the city with vibrant colors come autumn.
The Newburyport Street Tree Committee, with help from River Valley Charter School students, will be planting 60 trees throughout the city on April 15. With a goal of restoring the historic tree-lined streetscapes and beautifying the city’s main entrances, this “urban Eden” street team has been sprucing-up Newburyport since the committee’s formation in 2001. Charged with advocating for the “health, beauty, and general enhancement of the city’s street trees,” the group has planted more than 600 trees throughout the city in the last ten years.
Once the trees are planted, the committee provides attentive care that includes mulching, pruning, and watering. Committee members will also transplant existing trees to more amenable locations (relocating taller trees away from utility wires, for example). With help from the River Valley students; assistance from the city’s Link House residents, who lend their physical labor when needed; support from the Department of Public Works, who provide the traveling “water wagon” to the various tree sites; and an initial grant through the Community Preservation Act (CPA), the initiative to bring trees back to the city’s streets is one of passion and kinship—and recognition of a symbiotic relationship with nature.
“Trees are life-affirming,” says Katie Haried, landscape designer and tree committee member. She highlights the many benefits that trees bring to a community: visual beauty, improved air and water quality (filtering environmental pollutants), energy savings (cooling local temperatures and reducing the use of air conditioning), increased traffic safety (it is a little-known fact that a tree-lined street gives the illusion of being narrower, causing drivers to slow down), improved economic sustainability (the aesthetics of a “tree community” attracts visitors), increased property values (well-landscaped properties with mature trees are typically worth more than properties with no trees), improved physical and mental well-being, and a calming influence on human behavior. Recent urban studies suggest a decrease in crime rate in areas where a canopy of trees appears to encourage civility, rather than afford “cover” for criminal activities.
Then there’s the educational experience. Thomas Brace, River Valley Charter School student liaison with the tree committee, says that students learn many valuable lessons such as mapping skills, measurement, community involvement, cooperation, and planning. “They’ve enjoyed [the experience] over the years, and many take pride in looking at ‘their’ trees thriving throughout the city,” Brace says. (Students also assist with selecting planting sites.) Adds Haried, “The River Valley kids love it!” She explains that prior to planting the trees, the children (fourth through sixth graders) are given a brief training session. “They like working in the soil and are very enthusiastic,” Haried says. She shares a planting session anecdote from a previous year when committee member Jean Berger worked with a team of girls while Haried led a boys’ team. “The girls were very inquisitive and wanted to know everything about each tree they planted. The boys, however, were a bit more interested in the dirt. I knew I ‘had arrived,’ when one boy shoveled dirt on me!” Haried laughs at the memory. But the larger environmental lesson the children make, Haried says, is their discovery of the connection they share with each tree they help to plant.
Like having street smarts, street trees have to be resilient and impervious to various onslaughts. Severe weather, salt from treated city streets, and exhaust from automobiles are a few of the considerations that the tree committee researches when deciding on which trees to plant in its “urban forest.” Last year’s tulip trees, with their yellow-green-orange petals, possess a delicate beauty that belies the fortitude of this hardy species. This year, the committee will plant Wedding Bells Silverbells, a tree species that blooms in the spring. Other trees that will be planted this year include maples, lindens, and hornbeams.
“Planting trees is different now than it was a century ago,” states Kelleher. He speaks of the Dutch Elm blight back in the 1950s and 1960s that ravaged the city’s ancient elms—including the canopy of trees along High Street. “A monoculture [of trees] leaves the streetscape vulnerable to disease,” Kelleher says of this sad consequence of planting only one tree species. “The key is to plant many disease-resistant varieties that will be here in generations to come.” To continue with its mission, the committee is presently exploring fundraising and grant opportunities.
It is their appreciation for trees—and for all the functional, beneficial, tangible, magical, and spiritual qualities that trees offer—that members of the Newburyport Street Tree Committee would like to convey and share with Newburyport’s citizens.
For more information about the Newburyport Street Tree Committee, to volunteer, or to suggest a future tree site, contact Katie Haried: klharied@comcast.net.
Kathleen Downey is the Features Editor for Newburyport Today. Kathleen can be reached at Kathleen@Newburyport-Today.com
Photos: via Newburyport Street Tree Committee
