Tree planting report, fall 2017

[mem_winterhill]

The I did the tree planting with the folks from the city, the Mystic River Watershed Assn, GroundworkSomerville, a bunch of neighbors (and some from other towns). People were asking me what it was like so I'll report back here.

We started at 9am. The holes in the sidewalk had already been opened on the Bailey Road sidewalks. We got a short intro to tree planting (shallower is really better for these urban trees roots). Not too much mulch up to the base (the arborists joke about this being the "mulch volcano" and say it's bad for the tree).

We had about 3 people per team (but as the rest of the day went on that blurred out a bit. We ran out of soil at on spot and moved to another to start something else, waiting for the wires for the stakes, stuff like that. But most of it was very accessible to any activity level. Having someone with a little more strength to move the soil bags or the wheelbarrow full of mulch was handy but not really bad either.

We did 10 trees, 5 were Serviceberry and 5 were hedge maple. The trees were light enough that I can pick them up myself.

We had flyers for the abutters to explain the trees and care, most neighbors were super pleased, of course. One guy not so much. Key point: when the city has contractors plant the trees, they come with a maintenance deal to water for a couple of years. These trees need neighbors to help out. So goodwill and adoption of the idea is important in this project. I should also mention that there was outreach to the homes prior to the planting too, so they knew it was coming presumably.

This was kind of a pilot to see how this goes. The grant that this ran under has budget for 100 trees so they will be looking to do more probably in the spring. This might be a nice project/event for our group. I'd like to run the idea past Vanessa (our city arborist) so maybe we can do a Winter Hill focused one then. I'll bring it up at a meeting later, but wanted plant the idea (see what I did there??) now. Most people I've casually talked to seemed open to the idea.

Below the fold I'm going to add the info and video they gave us so I can refer back to it later when I propose it as a WHNA thing. Open that section for the details.
Video of the bare root tree planting style (15min):

"Creating an Urban Forest: The Bare Root Method" (Watch on Vimeo)

Creating an Urban Forest: The Bare Root Method from Cornell Horticulture on Vimeo.

The trees we had (this is under the highway at Temple St):
 

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Vanessa explaining stuff to us:

A volunteer pounding the stakes in--this required a bit of height and more strength than some of the other tasks:

Examples of the teams of 3 and their first tree. People really enjoyed this, it felt very satisfying for everyone I talked to:

https://twitter.com/MysticMyRWA/status/926845634497433600

https://twitter.com/MysticMyRWA/status/926895609373773824

Sample of the tree flyer that went out to neighbors.



Other photos of the event can be seen here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/44914436@N07/sets/72157690268089406