Greening Commonwealth Road – Part 2

Today I talked to Daphne Collins in the Town Conservation Office
(617-972-6426). She explained the process for getting a new tree
planted on the median strip in front of your house.

The town allocates $50,000 a year for planting trees and it costs about
$400 to plant one, so about 125 trees can get planted. First the
homeowner has to contact Daphne and get put on the request list.
Currently only 75 requests have been made for the planting to be done
in October. After the tree is planted the town leaves instructions for
care of the tree with the resident and asks for a $95 donation.

Since the town is in the process of hiring a new Tree
Warden/Conservation Officer/Historic Preservation Officer and the new
person will be starting shortly before the tree planting, he may decide
to scale back the planting this year or do things a different way.

There is also an organization called Trees for Watertown, funded by
private donations. They will give residents $100 toward the costs of
planting a tree on the resident's property. Contact Sandy Howard,
617-926-3490

 I also talked to Frank Cerotti who is currently responsible for
Ridgelawn Cemetary, all the playgrounds in town, and all the trees. For
tree work he has a staff of two (with only one available much of the
summer becuase of vacations – though he does have a private contractor
coming for 10 days). He generously spent time on the phone with me
explaining about how tree maintenance is handled in town – which is
basically just constant triage. He remembered when driving along the
Carver Road delta was like driving through a tunnel because of all the
trees.