Almost one in four trees planted by the city die
Kent Johnson, an unpaid volunteer, used the city’s public geographic information systems database to create this Cambridge Sapling Planting and Removal Report 2016-2022. He examined seven years of data testing for sapling diameter, planting method, planting location, planting organization and species. His conclusion? Nearly 1 out of 4 saplings experienced “infant mortality” and died.
It is clear that the city can and should make three easy fixes immediately:
Plant a lot more trees. The Urban Forest Master Plan says to “plant 1,000 street trees each year” in addition to planting aggressively in parks. In the years since the plan was released, the city has planted, on average, less than 70 percent of the street-tree goal. We need to plant according to the plan plus even more to cover the failures.
Plant bigger trees. According to the report, “Saplings larger than 2 inches in diameter have dramatically improved removal rates [due to death].” This is the single-most-effective improvement. The cost increase per sapling is ostensibly only “a few hundred dollars,” while the benefits are adding years of canopy growth otherwise lost by failures and saving the out-of-warranty replacement expense.
Remove dead or dying saplings promptly. Delay falsely increases the survival-time data of some saplings, while prompt removal may yield more clues for the cause of death. Data should be handled more carefully. The 2022 database reports 982 total plantings, but the city’s January press release claims 1,385, a more than 40 percent discrepancy.
Kent Johnson shows the power of volunteering. Cambridge has a vast resource of people who care about the environment. Volunteers can provide a wide range of skills and resources beyond watering a tree in front of their home.
Finally, the city should actually follow its own Urban Forest Master Plan. The plan requires annual reports and “an expert advisory committee” to conduct an annual review. But there are no annual reports, and there is no expert advisory committee. A volunteer conducted a review on his own.
What can you do?
Tell city management and the City Council to fund the Urban Forest Master Plan, especially at the Jan. 31 city budget hearing.
Sign up to join with other tree advocates at Cambridge4Trees.org. Fill out the volunteer form as well!
Charles Teague, North Cambridge
Charles Teague has been advocating for preserving the tree canopy and Linear Park since 2016.
Getting people to stop letting their dogs pee on the new trees would help too.
Why do people even think letting a dog do their business in the middle of a concrete jungle is appropriate….?
Agreed Sam. And the fact that the city just wastes our money like this is an embarassment. They buy street cleaners specifically for the 65million dollar bike lanes, yet cant keep the trees alive here or the mass die off at Danehy because they forgot to water them, while they claim to be environmentally concerned. Now they’ll be using polluting leaf blowers every sweeping because towing cars is apparently mean and unfair? The priorities here are just bizarre.
So typical of this city. Just keep needlessly wasting money, while there is not enough for critical projects, such as affordable housing for those already living in Cambridge.
On another topic:I’ve had dealings with the city arborist. He is a disaster in so many ways. Arrogant, mis-informed, incompetent.
I don’t get dog peeing in parks, either. It is common to see dogs pee and poop on the same grass kids roll over and play on. Most owners pick up the poop, but the damage is already done. Not only is this just gross and unhygienic, but it also kills the surrounding nature.
The City should have by now replaced leaf blowers with electric ones, no idea why that has not been done, and have not seen anything in the public discourse at the council about a budget to do such (anyone else know more on this please jump in and correct me ).
The Data failure in regards to reports in regards to planting and failure to meet the plan goals is definitely something that needs to be addressed… is someone cooking the books? Are we paying for trees that were never planted?
The failure to establish the advisory board and reports is, I presume, something we can believe was a failure of the previous city manager. The current one should now correct this ASAP as we need such in place with Spring planting season which is not far from now.
Honestly, 75% survival is probably typical for urban tree planting.
Here is one study I found of urban tree planting, and found a 5 year survival rate of 70.9%.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/nrs/pubs/jrnl/2014/nrs_roman_2014_002.pdf
I found a few other studies that are in line with this.
According to the Urban Forestry, “We source our trees through our planting contract. Which involves visiting the nursery and selecting the appropriate stock.” Planting contractor guarantees newly planted saplings so if they do not survive, they are replaced by the contractor. I do not know the period of the guarantee, but I think it is one year.
If you wish, you can make a donation to their tree fund for trees to be planted in honor or in memory of loved one. Public Works does not place markers at the trees, but Urban Forestry will provide a virtual marker on their website. In 2021, a donation of $200.00 per tree provided to the City of Cambridge to be deposited into the Tree Fund will cover the cost of purchasing and planting the trees.
36,897 voters cast their votes for Governor in 11/8/2022 election. If just 10% of these voters donates one tree, we would have more than 3600 new trees guaranteed by the planting contractor. And you will be creating a living memorial for your loved ones as I have done in memory of my mother.
Virtual memorials aren’t something most people consider of any real value in memorializing anyone since they are just a note in a database, especially with the high mortality rate among trees that are planted as this whole discussion thread is about.
Sure it would be great to increase the funding for tree planting, but since it appears that even a simple thing like watering trees is being mismanaged, donations rather than it being something the city takes seriously in the public works budget seems like a literal drop in the bucket.
We need more pressure put on the companies that move in here to contribute to the city infrastructure, and that includes the public works department for city maintenance. They create wear and tear on the city and in many cases pay very little into the city coffers to cover what they cost the city.