Tree rally in Danehy Park: Brownsberger speaks, MIT collaborates for greenery and city should too
More than 60 people gathered in Danehy Park on Tuesday to learn how to help stop tree loss in Cambridge and hear longtime environmental supporter state Sen. Will Brownsberger give an update on current climate change mitigation efforts.
City councillors Paul Toner and Dennis Carlone are among those hearing Brownsberger lay out the foundational concept of the transition to an all-electric society. Massive global initiatives, such as conversion to electric cars, are well underway, though it can be difficult for an individual to convert their existing home to be all-electric, he said. Brownsberger closed by emphasizing the importance of trees in protecting us from inevitable future heat waves.
Chuck Hinds, longtime president of the East Cambridge Planning Team, recited a litany of loss of exceptional trees in East Cambridge that cannot be replaced in our lifetimes – exceptional trees being defined as being greater than 30 inches in diameter, some being as much as 150 years old and representing the largest 3 percent of trees in the city. Hinds ended on a more promising note, describing how ECPT saved dozens of mature trees planned to be cut down by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by working with the school to redesign its projects.
Next Mike Nakagawa, an officer of the Fresh Pond Residents Alliance, recounted the loss of 93 trees at Tobin School reconstruction; and 95 during just the first phase of construction at the Jefferson Park low-income housing project, with another 150 planned to be cut down in the second phase. All are near a planned city path near Danehy Park where plans call for even more trees to be cut down. Nakagawa offered alternative designs to increase space for preserving and planting trees in upcoming city projects, but said our city’s Community Development Department dismissed his suggestions – a contrast with Hinds’ experience working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Nakagawa encouraged the group to contact CDD in support of “tree-friendly” changes.
As president of ACN, I pointed out large mature trees in Danehy Park that probably died due to this year’s drought and the city’s belated repair of a failed irrigation system. Even 20 years will not be long enough to replace them. But if enough residents work together, they can get city management to make simple and obvious changes: first, prioritizing protecting our parks and the trees within; second, getting the new city manager to have all staff follow the city’s own Urban Forest Master Plan, developed over years and at great expense. The plan details what the city, its institutions, its businesses and its residents need to do to preserve and grow a tree canopy that protects all of us.
This event was co-sponsored by six community groups in addition to the Association of Cambridge Neighborhoods: the Porter Square Neighbors Association, Fresh Pond Residents Alliance, Alewife Neighbors, East Cambridge Planning Team, Cambridge Residents Alliance and the Alewife Study Group.
For information, send email to [email protected].
Charles Teague, president of the Association of Cambridge Neighborhoods, has been advocating for preserving the tree canopy and Linear Park since 2016.
Based on the massive turn out depicted in the photo no wonder we are “Tree City USA” ….go us!
I’m very sorry I was out of state and missed this event. Can we get hold of Mr Nakagawa’s suggestions do as to write to our benighted Community Development Dept?
many came late. It was a great event. I was surprised more councilors didn’t show up considering how they talk both trees and big buildings. Come to think of it- not surprising at all. These events should be supported.
Thank you Councilors Toner and Carlone for being engaged.
About a dozen flowering trees and bushes, approximately four decades old, have been chopped down – killed. They flowered in beautiful abundance every Spring in the courtyard of 808/812 Memorial Drive. Now they’re gone. We thought destruction of healthy, thriving trees was forbidden – that only diseased trees or trees causing interferences were allowed to be destroyed. The 808 courtyard trees were mature, healthy, flowering cherry, magnolia trees and azalea bushes. We will miss their beauty and fragrance.
Eliza, last summer I watched many superb mature oaks cut down at the Tobin School, despite a large protest before the event at City Hall, and according to Mike Nakagawa (see above) dozens of mature shade trees have been cut down around the new construction at the Jefferson Park housing project despite the complaints of the residents who will now have to live without shade in our horrible new heat waves, and without their beauty. Developers refer to trees as “weeds”—trying to work around them takes more time and time = $$. The previous city managers have put up no resistance. The two councilors who attended this event have supported developers and destructive development. They no doubt have reasons. But I grew up in a beautiful town, rich in history and culture, wetlands and woods and civic engagement, destroyed by development—and far more unequal now than in its former days—so I look on most developers as heartless greed monsters!
Isobel, Thank you for your considered and perceptive comment. I agree wholeheartedly. It’s too bad that the city councillors who claim to be so concerned about the environment didn’t intercede before it was too late. Just a lot of blah, blah. Well, my cynicism can hardedly get any deeper.
Isobel: I have known Councilor Carlone for a long time. He is very pro-tree and not pr0-development. You should provide evidence before you make accuse a councilor. To me, one problem is that the city does not have enough staff enforcing the tree ordinance. Also, the ordinance allows a property owner to cut down a tree if they either replace it or pay a substantial fee. That is what happened at the Tobin School- the cut trees will be replaced with more trees, but it will take some years until the canopy is as big as it was before they were destroyed.
agree with Lee. Councilor Carlone has been a steady proponent of trees and careful development with good design and planning. But the city seems to ignore those points. Quinton used to be the tree guy. Now he is more pro-development.