for e e [Music] hello hey Bennis hey there let just see who else coming in Julian said he might be late sixish hold on what did you say Alan Julian might be late possibly around six yeah that's what he said all right and I haven't talked to the library yet so about the about the table well we'll get to that on the agenda yeah we can blame you in person oh yeah and I did notice something yesterday and I was like sitting at that space in Antonio's pizza right and there's like these like little lights like strung up you know and they go through one of our trees and one of the parts that like there's these bulbs they it it's like smashed so it's like like the filament is like touching the tree and I'm worried about it like burning down the tree I don't know I'll look into that benett did you see I put out the newsletter today I didn't but I thank you so much for doing it I I I think this is the only time I've missed doing it I'll get it next month thank you y I realized it hadn't gone out so I just threw it together quick all right I think God Brit is here as well she has I'm here I'm uh I'm six so I'm G leave my camera off okay I'll keep an eye on that and Bennett you'll take notes this time yes as soon as my um computer gets unstuck yes right that's great um all right so can we approve the June minutes there's no public comments yet so yeah oh I did I was wondering about um if we called the Sugarloaf Nursery correctly like is it Sugarloaf Nursery or is it Sugarloaf Gardens because like when I went online to try and find like a graphic to put on Facebook it like for the nursery but they came up big time for gardens I think they're Gardens I think I remember that from a thank you that I wrote months ago yeah sugar Gardens is okay all right I guess that needs to be corrected in the minutes because it says Nursery okay so we should correct that in the minutes okay see if anybody's in there okay uh so minutes approved only a few of us were there but yeah it wasn't there s were you there last month no okay and was okay so how do we approve minutes um I guess we have a quorum so if the majority of us who say thumbs up and they're approved with that correction by shashana so approve approved okay two and0 and two extensions Brit you weren't there either right I don't you okay is gone what's that Brit is gone does that still give us a quorum how do we how many do we need for a quorum I forget yeah there's four of us so that's a quorum okay all right don't know what happen to it but okay so uh that's done approved um with that one change of sugar Gardens uh minutes no hours not minutes right so shash um see maybe five okay Bennett I don't think I had any Sarah two two Brit are you there you back yes it kicked me off I'm back um maybe an hour you have this meeting too so oh okay two two three hours two two yeah you can't do halves right so we'll just say three three three okay actually update me I had three because I did that planning in June okay good um and me I don't know how many hours I'll say eight wait for Julian and Ellen okay okay good uh so now on to business do I need to share the agenda does everyone know it oops that's not what I want there we go I'll share it a share screen everyone see it yep okay so we go to the chair's report I'm gonna get rid of it so I'll stop sharing okay um yeah so uh we're getting ready for Saturday I won't be there Saturday there's somebody else coming in let me add Brook to be a to participate okay Brooks is on also um I won't be this Saturday but it sounds good I talked to Allan he says he has the hardware cloth to wrap around the trees for protection trunk protection I'm wondering if we want to meet before Saturday and do some of that or we just want to do it on Saturday actually that'll come up as an agenda item later but yeah any opinions I I'll be hard pressed to get anything in before Saturday although I think I can do Saturday okay I would be too and Saturday is going to be tight for me anyways I'm going to have to like Blaze like the second we're done planting or working tree care okay hopefully we'll get lots of people volunteering from the community um so we'll just we'll do the we'll create the cages on Saturday and put them up at the same time so some people can work on that While others are mulching and pruning and weeding are we doing um hardware cloth cages are we doing like the those bag kind of things we're doing hardware cloth that'll just protect the trunk okay okay good I've I've done those before for so um experienced at least great that'd be great so bring your friends and uh try to get a crowd there um okay I attended a grants webinar we're going to talk about the grant a little later uh the cool cars Grant from the state and they're offering 30 to to $150,000 to plant trees especially in social justice areas but we'll talk about that later um Allan mentioned an August site visit maybe so we'll talk about that soon uh Greenfield tree committee on the 23rd which is two weeks from today they're doing a tree walk at 6 PM I'm GNA join if anybody wants to go up with me that'd be great all right when is that again I want to write that down it's two weeks in today June uh July 23rd at 6 PM meet at the common in Greenfield okay and uh Julian and I attended the tree warden's dinner and it was great the woman uh who spoke first talked a lot about um tree protection during construction projects and she was very funny and very smart and was showing just a ton of um let me add somebody into this uh just showing everything that people do wrong so she said she doesn't saying why you put the um the boards around the tree trunk because no truck should be with within 50 ft of the trunk to get that close you know she said if they're hitting the that the tree guard that they're already damaging the tree so bad that why bother protecting the trunk that's her opinion so it's very good very smart and sassy and uh well spoken so I she's supposed to send me Alan I think she was supposed to send you the um her slides I'd like to share with the committee so if you could send that to me at some point okay I hav't received it I'll remind her or reach out to her good thank you okay then oh I was in Norwalk Connecticut I'm gonna add one more show you one more thing if I can find it here um G to share my screen I was in Norah Connecticut for a show and next to the parking garage they had these lovely protection around the trees they were like tree Wells and they were lovely when they were installed now they were completely strangling the tree so let see if I can get this there we go great share screen check this out thought you'd all appreciate this oh yeah I wrote I wrote to the uh Tre warden in Norwalk or whatever the equivalent is and I have not heard back but um I will pursue this so anyway what not to do we're learning a lot about that okay um Alan Hemlock willia dels um I was speaking to a guy actually from The Bird Club who said he's been on some of the research on the parasites of the Willie dges that they starting to release and I checked into trying to get some of them and they're not available to the public but I'm wondering if they'd be available to the town if you could look into that yeah they um they've actually released some in ammer already in various mostly on the Holy Oak range um I'm not sure what if they've released any of the newer um attempts of uh Predator release but I can look into it yeah that'd be great if I could get a few from my area and we can start spreading them around town so yeah so there's promise for the Willie delid it sounds like this Beetle that they're releasing there's a couple of choices but one that they got on the west coast it wasn't quite Hardy enough but maybe it's starting to be hardier so anyway that's all I have uh Julian's not here for the Julian is here now Julian is here and he was and then I kind of disappeared again oh Sunrise Amor showed up at some point but no it's not there now okay um so until he gets this Sarah you want to do the treasures report yes our current balance is $1,167 29 um there were two deposits one in April April 4th for 1,920 which was that um pay into the tree fund that we were expecting then there was a donation on June 25th for $100 that was the woman who we planted a tree in her brother's honor and uh we just received today July 9th $750 from the ammer Garden Club for planting trees and flowers other plantings um on the new town common so that hasn't been processed to our account yet it's pending it takes about a week for everything to get cleared um but that should uh appear in our next update okay shashana can you send the thank you note to them do you have the the cards um I thought thought I gave you some but I did have some but I feel like I may have given them to Sarah maybe did I give them to you no I don't think so I don't have any paper like hard paper stuff yeah like I know I had them at one point but I feel like they left my custody and went to somewhere else but I can I can scare up something all right I might have some more too um Brit do you have them nope I've never seen them okay all right uh yeah we have nice cards that we send out with the drawing um by the woman who used to work at Collective copies whose name was not coming to me at the moment anyway anything else there no okay so that's it Alan tree warden's report um yeah I got a bunch of random stuff some of which we're gonna talk about later um contacted big Nursery about the dead oak trees they're they're reaching out to the grower where they B who they bought those be root trees from to see if they can warranty them uh I do need the minutes um for the vote to purchase the hardware cloth so I have the signed form from the committee stating that you approve of release of funds for the hardware cloth but I don't have the vote showing you did it so just I don't have the copy have those minutes yet maybe that's what we voted on tonight we approved that last month or two months ago I looked I looked for him for some reason I couldn't find him anywhere um can we revote now and do that um or someone could just send me the minutes from last from two months ago if they're not in the minutes um all right I'll I'll look through the minutes but just in case no I couldn't I couldn't find the minutes period for that month so yeah okay if somebody has those minutes um send them to you that's all I'm saying for that month all right I will look in my files but um all right if not we'll reapproved to donate money for planting the new flower bed in front of town hall which is you know it's roughly you know almost four feet three feet wide and about almost 60 feet long uh runs in front of town hall facing the north Comm um and uh we after discussing it we figured out the easiest way to do this would be to because the tree committee has the it's set up this way for a donation to come in and then spend that money pretty quickly um so we put it in the shry Committee Fund um since the shry committee wants to be a b city um thought we could work that into a pollinator garden for front of town hall so we're going to discuss that later today um you may have to have a tree hearing for Heatherstone and which is an Echo Hill an Echo Hill Circle I think it is called or eer Hill Road um they want to install these little tiny micro roundabout um and there's a white pine that might be impacted by that um I knew it I knew it I went to the meeting and he was like oh yeah no sweat and then like yeah I knew it so we're we're still looking to see if you know if the road can be moved just a little bit then I think we could probably save the way Pine um we're checking it out um so what we may want to do today is actually pick a date for a site visit and then if we do it then I'll have a date and I can post that date and let everybody know we are holding a a site visit in a tree hearing um and then just quickly I think yeah I went to Tre City USA awards ceremony was that before our last meeting I can't remember um you would ceremony yeah you can sell again I don't remember so yeah Tree City USA Julie and I attended the meeting um it was nice very nice presentation um all around for the town's I think it was 37 years 38 years um and then uh I would like to get the committee's opinion on um Beach Leaf Disease and treating it so they have a treatment now to treat the neemod that is causing Beach Leaf Disease which is killing many many beaches in the forest and in the landscape um landscape trees have a hope of being um protected with this treatment um to treat all it's seven of the beach trees that are on the North common in the main common it cost um a little over $5,000 um that money would come out of the capital fund the for ,000 for tree planting and tree removal and tree pruning and all those fun things um so it would be an injection so they would inject the trees with a essentially it's a fungicide that's been registered for other uses and it recently has been for an emergency use has been label for um Beach Leaf Disease to kill the nematodes it also includes uh a soil treatment of um a phosphate material which helps invigorate the tree so it injects it's a soil injection around the trees so that 5,000 would be for injecting the trees and the root treatment to invigorate the trees and um big um Bartlet tree would be the people doing the work the company doing the work this would be a good topic for a oped column or something in the Gazette um the different problems that our trees are facing and and what we're doing about them so anybody wants to do some writing maybe Brooks that might be something for you to do or I I don't feel like I know a lot about it well for any of us it' be learning you know be study and researching it right right yeah um what's what's the prognosis do you think alen that this um this would work currently the trees that's a great question the trees that we're looking to protect either I haven't been able to find an infestation yet of theode in them um doesn't mean it's there I just haven't been able to see it yet the the large beet trees down by Amis golf course on South Pleasant Street um just as you leave town heading south on 116 there um those are heavily infested and they're you know probably not even worth trying to inject at this point and that's been about a threeyear threeyear infestation that's taking them to the stage so if you want to see what beach Leaf Disease looks like stop by and walk underneath those trees and you'll see the damage it causes very quickly so if the the nimod feeds on the bud when it's closed it feeds on the leaf inside the the bud so it does all the damage before the tree even leavs out um but we I'd definitely be happy to you know I think that's great idea is a opportunity to educate people about beach leaf disease um I was just going to ask about the um you know roughly what is the size Andor age of the seven beach trees that would be treated like how significant are these trees they're they're pretty significant um you know we went to Great Lengths to protect all the beach trees on the North common for the project and you know we chose to protect the beach trees because they were the healthiest trees on the common and the lyen trees um and uh so the beach trees are range in dime the seven beach trees are four 20 in 30 in and these are diameter of the tree at 4 and a half fet off the ground so 20 in 30 in 33 16 22 31 and and a 4 inch Beach tree so they're they're mature some of them are mature shade trees um yeah um yeah so I you know just want to bring that comed it's something I I really want to do um I feel it's you know I'm not a big you know a lot of My Philosophy is you know it's in the urban environment it's a bit of a tough love for trees Town doesn't have a lot of money to throw at you know a lot of preventative maintenance um but these are these are very significant landscape trees in the center of town that um would be terrible to lose and there's there's hope that there'll be you know a treatment for the a more lasting treatment for the the nematode um control unlike Emeral ashor where emal ashor they don't really have they're getting close but you know we're going to lose those ash trees before they have a a cure for that so or a natural predator so how long how long theoretically would this treatment last the injections last about two years I feel again this is this is just research has just wrapping up that they've haven't had a lot of time but they've seen good results both with a you can do a foler treatment which you know you have to soak the entire tree with this you know Fungicide and get the tree to ABB it systemically that way um the injections um 100% of the chemical is a small amount of chemical gets goes right into the tree and may last longer in the tree than the foler application foler application actually I think it takes three applications each year um and the injections are just one application a year possibly two years for Sarah you had your hand raise that was my question was about how long the treatment would last and whether we would be anticipating dosing again yeah I I do think that after two years we we would probably be doing this again so somebody's joining in Julian's here okay Julian you have your hand raised there he is Julian did you want to say something no well he's here anyway okay anything else Alan that's it and you know I don't I guess I just was looking for input from the committee if you feel okay with this if you're concerned about the application of a you know the side the injection the process um I'm really happy to hear that you're interested in doing a educational component on it so that's great news um so I I did want to go backtrack a bit on the tree City USA thing so um the town has been a tree City USA for a long time and UMass has been a tree City USA sorry tree Campus USA um I think for three or four years now um Amis College uh is now a tree Campus USA as well and then eversource has also um been awarded Tree Line USA so for utility companies for their efforts in you know tree preservation pruning proper Tree Care pring practices you know all those things that people feel utility companies don't do um they they've done a lot of work to to improve their their practices over the years so um at the meeting I actually had a photo taken um unfortunately the crew from eversource didn't get up to join us and I didn't catch it but I had emis college and UMass staff join the town of Amer um for a photo where I so with the thought that we would do a press release um and I have the photo now um of all the people entities the largest land owners in town that are working to maintain our Urban Tree canopy so um something I want to work on yeah Bennett yeah I just wanted to go back to your um thank you for that Allan I just wanted to go back to the um uh the beach Lea disease um but is there any what's the likelihood that if we you know if you go ahead if you did this tomorrow what's the likelihood that in a month somebody would write to bring up some controversial issue regarding the fungicide like is it is it remotely controversial is there any is there is there any do you know of any negative um environmental impacts that it is known to have I ask that assuming that there's not but I think I I don't I want to prepare for that if there is yeah so I mean every every chemical out there has some sort of impact on it um so the fungicides already label for use on things like Sycamore and thos so that um you know tree won't get hit in the spring when the cool moist weather and the anthos kills the the bud and causes the tree to have to relief again um so you can actually they've been using this for a long time it's not a new fun side um and the fact that we're going to do the injection method you know 100% of the material and it's we're talking small quantities of material um get directed injected directly into the tree so it's it's in the tree tissue um and it uh ultimately will break down with ultrav violite in the environment is there any way that we could watch the procedure either as a committee or make it a public event and advertise it include it as part of a tree walk something like that where we could or is it too hard to coordinate with the company doing it yeah I mean you know it's it's much easier to coordinate injections than it is spraying fol your spraying so um you know fol spraying you got to wait for the right weather and the conditions and it needs to be done at two o'clock in the morning and you know because you don't want people walking around while you're drenching the tree so um it is it's really going to be we're going to have we're going to set a date um and if it's not raining you generally want to have a nice Clear Day somewhat easy uh to do injections but you know tree is going to take up this time you'll be taking taking these um this material up pretty quickly so it's definitely doable to try to coordinate something like that and I would recommend it it's it's impressive to see how they do it yeah so they were they were already done so so you think they weren't done yet no theyve not been done yet I have to um I have to post it so anytime we you know apply pesticides anywhere chemicals we have to post it so I have to go through the posting process um and uh at that point I will set a date for when it's going to happen um and I can let the committee know yeah I I like the idea of um making it public and maybe like you know have like a two-minute talk about why what's going on you know explaining the the disease um I think people might be interested in [Music] that it's a great idea Sarah yeah I'm I'm happy to write something up Henry um Alan do you have any idea timeline wise like is this going to happen this year oh yeah it has to happen very quickly um okay we're we're right in the application threshold now it needs to happen like in the next two to three weeks um so I have to tomorrow I gotta try to figure out the posting date and procedures and everything we haven't posted we haven't used chemicals for anything since I worked here so I haven't gone through the posting process and I got to make sure that I'm up to date on those regulations okay if uh would you be able to send me whatever information you have about it um I'm happy to write something up especially if we're going to try to publicize it and have like a little event or at least make it public um but I don't know very much about the whole procedure so any any information you have to send me would be great and I'll try to write something up definitely I can send you everything I have thank you that's great thank you Sarah yeah okay so uh now on to the regular part of the agenda I'll share my screen again so you can see it all okay so tree nursery care and Alan you talked about selecting new species to extend the thing so where are we with that um yeah we don't um you know we're not gonna be buying anything until um you know next spring early late winter you know we'll put in an order for more root stock um so it's more of an ongoing question for the committee what how many more how big do we want to get and I I still have to fix the waterline issue at the nursery so um that is going involves digging up a water line to repair a break in it um now that we're in the new fiscal year I can I can go forward with that process and Julian how have you been Mowing and watering or yeah so first off sorry I joined a little bit late um and went in and out there uh but yes basically we mowed um in like mid June um I trimmed everything down with a weed whacker um and watered everything Allan's been on top of watering I'm pretty sure um more often than that and uh we're probably about do to go in there again honestly um not sure if we want to just trim it down again I'd say it's probably better to trim it down than use a Scag just to reduce the risk of hitting any trees well thanks for doing that keep we've been getting good precipitation so it's been pretty you know we' been like water maybe once a week instead of two or three times a week yeah well keep an eye on it and let us know if you need help with doing some of the trimming and and watering so yeah um it shouldn't it shouldn't be that much of an issue it probably only takes about an hour okay anybody have other thoughts about the tree nursery I just have a question um I have like a whole lot of um swamp White Oaks coming up in my yard so it would it be useful if I like dug them up in the fall and brought them over to the tree nursery yeah so um yes I think that's a great idea to take if you've got trees that are you know young little sort of whips that are you know dormant um not too big we can dig them and put them in grow bags and and start growing them um Oaks are a fall dig Hazard so you'd want to dig them in the spring before they start to Lea out um so if you if you um dig them in the fall they have a harder time with transplant some I see okay all right then I'll I'll dig them out next spring but if they're really small they might work it might work but I think their first year you know as far as I can tell I'd never seen them before but there's like maybe eight or nine of them in my backyard yeah I've got some uh I've got some trees in my yard that I was going to you know bear root in very early spring and pop them in the nursery if possible too so okay great okay anything else on the nursery no um Bennett are you still here hold on Bennett are you still here taking minutes yes I am I'm just um doing dinner prep too so yes okay yeah that's fine as long as good I just don't want to be missing all this important stuff good um Sarah are you gonna say something yeah um Alan I don't know where you're buying from and what's available but I think it'd be great to get some fastigiate varieties or something that's really narrow that we could plant in hard to plant areas like close to buildings really narrow strips um near power lines anywhere where we wouldn't typically otherwise be able to plant a shade tree if there's any availability for some of those you know cultivars that can fit those hard spots I think they're expensive to get when they're big and they're not usually widely available but if we're able to get some smaller ones and cultivate them and then plant them I think that'd be a great opportunity that's an excellent idea yeah and one question I did have is for the trees that we're going to be replacing how many trees in total need replacing at the nursery well we have 10 the 10 Oaks um never leaked out they have not pushed any buds they haven't suckered out they've been watering them we've been watering them and uh you know nothing's happened so um I'm going to see if I can get those replaced um two of populars we've got a couple of those that at least one that you know really has not buted out or or suckered out at all uh the several of the CH populars you know their buds didn't take um but now they're shooting out very aggressive um you know stump growth in the in the grow bags so you know we've already got a a ceiling there that's uh you know over 12 in tall and growing so those will probably be just fine let them grow up for a couple years um other than that everything's doing fine so we've got I would say 11 dead trees out of 40 um so [Music] okay I just want to offer for anyone who's feeling bad about the plantings I know at um last month's tree planting we talked to some of the Girl Scouts and they were like pretty upset that none of the Oaks made it um in my job as a landscape architect 25% die off for whips is like exactly what we plan for so anyone who's feeling bad about it just that's it's very very normal um and we'll just replace them ah good to know yeah so you when you hear about these billion tree plantings and million tree plantings you take it with a grain of salt because they're not replacing all those yeah and they probably have much higher die off than those so but yeah all right not that I'm incompetent sh the agenda not at all totally expect like over plant knowing that about a quarter will die yeah in um in non die off news the uh witch hazel whip that I took from um our sustainability Festival is doing well in my little container out front hey all right uh so next on the agenda is second Saturday workday the 13th we talked about prepping the tree cages do we we have tentative ideas for the fall maybe doing uh the brook and um I spoke with um Mindy Dom and she's going to meet or try to meet with the people that run the boulders and um see if we can get them on board the um the Grant from the cool card is Grant can be planted those trees can be planted on private property if you have a letter from the owner of or the manager of the company the manager of the of the apartment complex saying that they're willing will to do it and we'll support it so um I'll keep working with the brook and maybe that'll be one of the Fall plantings but we have a couple other dates so we should think of where else we might plant for the fall is there like a um neighborhood Comm Committee of some kind for either of those complexes that you know of not really to my knowledge yeah be something to find out though yeah yeah it would be great if we could just get some of the tenants there interested yeah well the guy from The Brook assured us that he would work with the landscape companies to make sure the trees are protected and if these tree cages we're doing around on East Pleasant Street if that works we can do that automatically for for plantings from now on so that might really help yeah and I feel like Gate House Road could really use some Street trees all their trees are dying they're all maples they're just they are sad in a very sad state is that of a Town Road Ellen it is that's an excellent location um I just need to reach out to the adjacent property owners and make sure they were supportive when we planted along Bel toown Road and most of those trees did pretty well are still doing well yeah there's one that is dead what's that teeny one it's like a little Bush it's like 18 inches tall that everybody else is doing good yeah one of the dog wordss yeah yeah all right also I think like um the bottom half of Main Street could use a few trees yeah that's been an issue because of uh of it's there's very little um right of way and the owners it's a lot of rental properties we we were had trouble getting approval to plant [Music] there what about the town-owned portion of it that's not owned by like the town in the town right away but is um in that apartment complex affordable housing complex watts and Farms that's owned by the Housing Authority right so would that be easier than a private property yeah there's a couple of locations there where they planted trees when they built that those trees are now dead standing dead trees um yeah there's a couple spots along Main Street where we could you know put trees in there uh and I've already talked to a couple at least one of the property owners they have multiple properties and they are interested in having trees planted um on Main Street so good awesome that is good yeah and if um if we have trouble connecting with them that's again something Mindy's very willing to do so um Alan did you say there was Watson Farm where you had some interest from the people there or was it a different one it was a different one further up um by the bus stop actually with the power high tension lies cross the road oh the Alpine or something Aspen oh yeah yeah Aspen Heights they were very upset with the power line clearing I remember that yeah yeah yeah so up up around up around there there's some people who they are multiple places along Main Street and they actually did a lot of clearing of Bittersweet and kind of invasive stuff and um they receded the area and there's a lot of space there now for mature shade trees to be put in Aspens what was that maybe we could plant some Aspens there yeah that sounds good um I'll talk to Mindy about Watson Farm and uh meanwhile and I'll check in with her about the boulders too and meanwhile we can continue with Aspen Heights whatever it is and uh I think we'll have a pretty busy fall we won't be able to get all that done this fall but we'll we'll see what about August are we gonna have the picnic uh that's also on the agenda let me oh is it okay is it uh August meeting or picnic next next on the agenda okay um yeah what do people want stop sharing so I can find there we go should we do the picnic again second Tuesday I think we should I think it's a fun time to gather with people that like talking about trees in a casual setting okay I thought it was a successful Outreach event I also think maybe for people who like aren't able to come and physically help plant trees um but might still be interested uh it would be like a good way that they could get involved in person all right so let's plan that for the second Tuesday in August and I will um set out send out the word to um Greenfield and Northampton three committees so that'd be good um do you know anything about the Hadley tree committee did that like survive I've read something about it but I haven't heard anything I haven't seen any new trees being planted in Hadley so yeah me neither and like they desperately need it we yeah um I wanted to add so I'll I'll be out of town that second Tuesday so I can't make it then but um I had a student who sat in on one of our meetings last year from belr toown and he's on their energy and sustainability committee they don't have a tree committee but they've been wanting to form one or or at least incorporate some tree related um activities into their energy and sustainability work so it might be worth also inviting some of those folks to come and connect with other um others yes definitely yeah great yeah I think also um calb the uh the new director of uh I think it's the Chamber of Commerce right yes yeah yeah that's right I met him he's nice yeah he's interested in tree committee type stuff too I think uh we should invite him as well that's a good idea great so it sounds like we have plans for the August the August meeting L the August meeting good um we were going to have it at um gra Park last year and then we ended up having it on the at Kendrick Park so should we just stick with Kendrick or we want to try gra again gra we'd need to reserve I guess I mean Kendrick has a nice playground I mean um upper gra you don't need to reserve the Pavilion for that but it's already so packed that you can't really sit there anyway so um I vote for Kendrick this is Bennett okay I like Kendrick it's nice downtown new yeah it's just there's no rain shelter last year we lucked out because it it was going to rain but barely did so all right let's do Kendrick again so also do the um the new North Common will hopefully be ready in August for um people to to sit but uh just in case I'd keep it on Kendrick okay let's news or like almost news about the the common um because I was in correspondence with Angela about wanting to be um part of the um the ribbon cutting cutting ceremony when it happens for us to have a presence there and um so they were saying that like they're waiting for the grass to grow in before they do it to like be like you know extra pretty and so they were and they were also maybe thinking about waiting for the students to come back but they're not entirely sure if they're GNA wait all that time so um she's going to keep me posted and if I hear anything I'll send out an email to the group and an announcement on Facebook great good um all right so Kendrick I'll let the um other the tree committees know um Brit you'll check check in with the belch people if someone can check in with the new head of the bid that'd be good and then we need to get the word out um and uh sort of plan additional things what to bring that stuff so that that being said there is a water fountain now at Kendrick um Park thanks to Allen um so that is one or excuse me the common so that is one thing to note on demand water a common has a water yeah y we're using Kendrick for this yeah yes yeah true okay good um environmental justice neighborhood planting I talked about I talked to Mindy and she's totally on board and if we don't get the grant then she could use some of her aach money also for um to cover the cost so sounds like we don't have to use the treat Committee Fund which we can't use for non Street trees but we can have um we will have money to be able to plant most likely so good uh solar farm position that came up last month yeah so I just would note um that the bylaw has been edited slightly by the Community Resources Committee of the Town Council but not a lot um so I would say that it arguably Remains the Same in function um as it did before um and I'm not sure if it goes I think it goes on to the council from here um but I'm not completely sure when or what that timeline looks like um but I'm talking about um the guy who came last month he wanted us to maybe take a position on the solar farm that that Kohl's is doing in oh that's sorry I thought you were thinking of solar bylaw working right yeah so do we want are they related do they interact I believe they would yeah um just because that farm would theoretically be regulated by any bylaw um that being said I don't think like uh oh Frozen chain ched um before it got passed it might it would affect it but to what extent we missed some of that because you froze so sorry what I was saying was um to an extent yes it is impacted by the bylaw um but the bylaw wouldn't really be strong enough in its current form unless it was changed before it got passed I'm is my understanding to directly impact sort of the project as a yes or no it might change certain aspects of it so are there ways that we are restricted as the shade tree committee to take positions on things like this we can take a position it's not really in our Valley Wick but because if they do this project up where it's going to be up shet Bay Road there's going to be a lot of Street trees that are AFF when they put the wires to connect it to the uh the rest of the uh the grid so if we focus on that in our you know in our position and we vote we could we could we could do that we don't have to just do that but that can be our our our lead into it right and we we can like take positions on things as a group to say like we don't support this um or this is our opinion um if it's like can be tied back or related to Street trees um but the other thing I would just remind us is that with the direct Street trees we will still have our hearing and we will advise the tree Wen on his decision and then the final say isn't with the bylaw or the developer or the Town Council I believe it's with Allen as long as someone doesn't write it up to the town manager is that correct yeah correct yeah well that will bump up to the town manager almost definitely yeah um so yeah um I think I think at that point it's a little late I think it'd be good to have a position ahead of time that we State and get out into the record I don't know if that'll help either but I think that's really the best way to move forward so we need something to vote on I'm not sure how to do that someone want to come up with a motion I wasn't here for the it sounds like there was a presentation or further discussion of um the solar plans um at a previous meeting but and I and I don't have a sense of what other people's feelings on this are but I would move um that the committee takes a public stand against um against project okay Bennett can you on the Fly just come up with a a statement right now can I can I add something um before you start discussing the statement um you might be interested in if if any kind of statement or on position of the committee isn't specific to a project but specific to um solar Farms that you know remove forested areas for solar Farms so you'd be against um solar projects in forced areas but not a specific project yeah sorry I just have a quick question um Britt mentioned the thing that Britt said was the same thing I was thinking I missed I was not in a meeting I assume that there was there some sort of presentation on this and I asked that because I'm embarrassed to say I'm obviously I know that have I know that this is a big issue it's not one that I've like I haven't dived deeply into it and I'm just a little uncom and it's a hugely contentious issue and I'm a little uncomfortable kind of on the Fly you know taking a vote on this much less being the one to draft the measure or to draft you know I don't feel very comfortable with it um I just because I don't I feel uninformed frankly um so I just wanted to register that yeah that's fine I mean there was a presentation last month there was okay great we can go back and watch that um on the recording then right Henry and it's also in the minutes yeah okay so if you read through the minutes it'd be good um but really it's um we can we don't have to specify the detail of the project we can just say that we as the shade tree committee are opposed to the removal of trees for solar farms in particular we opposed to the Kohl's project on shutesbury road and then we can specify some of the reasons why we are um and then including that it will affect Street trees along shutesbury Road as they try to connect the solar farm to the grid one one question I had is just like what are the options in terms of could we make it more specific to this project rather than solar farms in general maybe another solar farm proposal would come forward that we support for a different reason or so on and so forth like we don't know what's coming down the road so I guess like maybe make it specific to not supporting this project well I would say any solar project that clears Forest that's my personal opinion if the other people disagree that that's fine we can discuss that yeah I I sort of um am on alen's thinking about this that um I can imagine like CO's like saying this is like discrimination or it's personal or you know some kakami thing like that about if we take a position on that particular project but if we have a general position that we think that um all other options should happen before they start cutting trees to make solar farms and we know perfectly well that all other options have not been exercised at all there's so many rooftops and parking lots and other places where there wouldn't be this environmental damage and we wouldn't like release carbon that's been stored in trees so I think we could make a general statement it could be pretty clear what we think about Kohl's without even naming them I would take it a little bit farther Brooks I I like the sentiment but I I wouldn't necessarily include the phrase all other options be explored because Kohl's doesn't necessarily own I mean if we're taking a blanket statement and we're not talking about a specific project the maybe the only land a person has to develop is forested yeah so they don't have other options to explore but I think as a committee we could still safely say development on forested land for solar Farms you know that's clear cutting right and we can pretty safely say we don't support developing forested land for solar Farms which involves clear cutting because e there's other things to be done with that forested property that can make money and generate revenue for an owner that don't involve solar farms at all so I I think we could be even a little bit more aggressive in our general stance of not supporting the removal of forested land for for solar Farms or clear cutting of any variety yeah I I like that I think like having it specifically just against clear cutting whether it's for solar Farms or clear cutting because I'm wanting to sell lumber yeah I I would greate yeah what if it simply what if it simply said we are opposed to the large scale removal of trees for solar Farms is that too like is that too too generous is it too compact um Can can I just ask is this something that like we plan to publish somewhere publicly or put on website like what is the how are we planning to yeah share this we should publicize it but it would also we would send a letter to the Planning Commission and the you know the other committees that are discussing this yeah I think if that is the case then we need to be we need to say something more than what Bennett has just suggested and I think it's not something to be written on the Fly I think it's something to really craft in a careful way um especially given that you know one of the there was an article I think it was last year and there might have been more than one um in the National media about ammer about this exact issue and it pointed to you know people opposing the solar project um as basically you know nists saying like I don't want this in my backyard um I mean I think I think it has to be a more nuanced argument that we're making here um and even per perhaps pointing to some of the some of what's already been written I don't know I think I think we need to craft it carefully and I think you know there's also this point about development you know um especially with Kohl's it's like development versus forests and it's it's more nuanced than that also and I don't make any sense today because my brain is not well but um but but I think maybe this is something for all of us to do a little bit of research on read what's been written and think carefully about how we want to phrase our opposition um in the most meaningful you know potentially powerful way I I agree very much so Brit they you know the um the issue the broader issue and we can move on I guess unless we want to keep talking about it is the conversion of forest land to something other than forest or forestry use so you know forestry use means that the land stays in Forest the the private land owner can generate revenue or can have for various different products that doesn't involve you know hardscapes and and Roads and structures and things like that or maybe on a smaller scale but Forest conversion in general is is what we're trying to prevent to something other than Forest so we want to keep the benefits of all the that the forest provides keep it enforc and allow private land owners to to keep it in Forest because if you own 100 acres of land you're still paying taxes on it um and you need to generate revenue from it most people own land because they want to generate revenue from it um of some kind um so unless you're extremely wealthy can own land for the sake of owning land um you need to generate revenue from it so the committee could look at how and this people will help do this how people can keep land and Forestry and instead of converting it to solar Farms or subdivisions well I think that's great I think we also need to specifically mention this project and I'm a little concerned about timing we're not going to meet now till September so maybe we need to just take the time F but I think maybe someone should start drafting something and send it around to the committee and we can see if we're on the right page and then September we we make did I miss that we're not meeting in August yeah we're having the picnic oh instead I yeah so we could have an extra meeting but um I'm not sure that would work so um but me in the meantime I think we should be moving ahead with drafting something well you know I can like just start the conversation I mean I'm not going to like um have all the information research but I can just like start a letter and send it around and people can put their their expertise and knowledge into it great thank you yeah why don't you send it to me I'll send it out to everyone on the committee sure that sounds great well you can send it to the shade tree committee email to everyone you have okay I'll I'll send it somewhere thank you all right any the comments on this no I think that was a good discussion and uh we'll see how it progresses okay um site visit and tree herring in August Alan you mentioned you might want to pick a date now corre I'm gonna step out for a second and grab my calendar I'll be right back [Music] [Music] he this would have to be on Zoom Alan the site visit would not be on Zoom the tree hearing would be yeah okay be nice if we could do something next week if possible in case there's going to be a tree hearing um I'll know by the end of this week whether we actually going to need to hold a hearing or [Music] not I am flexible Monday through Thursday next week I have Wednesday Day free that's it this is I'm free should we say Wednesday the 17th in the morning I'm tied up in the afternoon on the 17th Wednesday I could do Wednesday Wednesday the SE so that's next week now and when would you be free um time before noon well except for 10 o'clock yeah so anywhere between 7 and 10 or 11 and noon so now the question is to you um Allan could we fit that into my work schedule and then if not the answer would be no yes you can sounds great and that's what I'll do that sounds good froze again um I think it would have to be evening or late afternoon I am I freezing or can you hear me I can hear you just fine okay I'm good so how about um Monday the 22nd I'm out of town that's the only evening I have that following week how about the 29 is that getting too far out from when we might be needing make the decision uh it still gives us enough time the 29th to 30 is a good for me I can do either as of now those are good dates for me we are talking about July correct yes okay yes those work for me I'm Gone the 20th through the 31st but it sounds like maybe you won't need me then if enough other people are around you do you have a preference for those two I can't I can't do the 30th I could do 29th okay Monday the 29th 7 o'clock 6 o' PM you talking PM or am what was that I didn't hear s or 6 PM or Am Pm I think that makes a very long work day for Allan that's fine I can I can do I can do six that's some all right it'll be a quick visit July 29th 6 pm tentative tree hearing sounds good to me tree no not tree hearing site visit site visit site visit right um You would also mention maybe needing a site visit for um the house that's being moved uh currently the proposed that's not going to happen till September I'm told now um and I don't have an exact route yet and and I don't know if trees actually will be removed so um that tree hearing may not happen um yeah that's GNA be tight I don't think they're gonna have to take any trees down to move the house okay so where is the site for the 29th great question it's uh on Heatherstone oh yeah over where Echo Hill I I think it's called Echo Hill e yeah I'm sorry as the note taker I should have been it's July 29th at what time 6 PM Monday July 29th and the tree hearing is sorry do not have a date yet okay got it we're we're doing this in case we have a tree hearing um so we'll have the s that planned okay all right so get that on your calendars everybody and it'll be in the minutes and I'll get it on the um this is not definite yet alen or it is correct it's not definite so I'll have to I'll have to let you know and then you can let everybody in the committee know whether it's happening or not good okay all right uh B City oh it's going to be a long meeting here but I think that's the only main thing we have left yeah I I can't remember the last time we talked about this um so two different town counselors had let me know that they would be willing to serve as a sponsor of the resolution um that is required to be officially recognized as a b city um and they said they would not be able to get the resolution formatted properly in time for the June meeting um I asked how I could help and then I have not heard back from them for several weeks um and should uh should reach out again um but my assumption is that it will move forward um at one of the next meetings um and I guess one thing that was not resolved was um where the money for the application uh fee would come from um and it sounded at our last meeting like the tree committee was not comfortable with taking that money from our funds um and so I could certainly ask um Paul bamman directly for it to come from a different budget um and when I talked with him about bity um which would have been at the sustainability event I believe in April you know he said that F coming up with money for that shouldn't be an issue so all right and then Alan you talked about doing the Garden in front of the um City Hall as part of that so um part of being a b City means that you need to do you need to plant pollinator friendly be friendly Gardens trees um you need to do educational Outreach um so it's an opportunity if the committee wanted to be involved there's a number of volunteers from town hall staff that also want to be involved um to come up with the design and to help plant um you know a beef friendly Garden in front of town hall um so we have $750 to purchase plant material um and it sounds like we've already got volunteers who want to help plant um so what we're looking for is somebody who wants to help come up with a design um give me a plant list where I can go purchase and I can go purchase of plant material and then we schedule a date in Late July early August where we do the planting this year or next this this year yeah well John root might be someone to contact UM R do you know him yes I know John just from you know coming to our plantings um and then in the last many months he sent me many many emails about native plants um yeah so it be worth talking to him maybe he could come up the design I'd also be happy to do it oh great okay yeah that sounds great Sarah thank you yeah and Sarah if there's anything I can I mean you have the professional expertise but if there's anything nonprofessional that I can help with um I'd be happy to and obviously I'm happy to help with the planting and all of that and Alan I think it's a great idea to use that space to you know kind of highlight the commitment of the town and um and and you know make it a really nice space for we could do our second Saturday planting in August for this instead of planting trees we plant the pollinated garden and hopefully there' be some bushes in there so yeah let's get moving on that um Sarah and Brit if you want to work on the design get that to Alan and we'll move ahead yeah great I will um Alan just to confirm it's directly in front of town hall you said it was like three by yeah it's like three feet by almost 60 feet I think um you'll if you if you stand in front of town hall to the right of the steps to the main door of town hall um is the new planting bed and it ends over where the road comes out from around the back parking lot of town hall okay where there is a tree planted okay great I think um there was some plant material too that came out of the old bed that was there um and I can try to come up with a a list of what those plants are that people sounds like some people from town hall wanted to put those back in the bed but I'm not I don't have no idea what they are for plants so okay yeah if you have any sense of what they are or how many um it is a uh baking hot full sun you know in the afternoon kind of thing there once the sun gets past the the yard arm there it uh is full sun okay well maybe we can include a couple of trees in the uh in the design so that'll shade it a little bit Julian you HR allow him to talk hi um am I panelist there we yeah I just uh let you be a panelist if you want good okay um anything else about this are we set we'll do the August planting date which is August uh the 10th second Saturday planting will be the B City planting and Sarah you'll work with Brit on the design and get that Talent yes anything else no okay uh Mary Maple table anything new on that sha are you here yes you're muted though no now there's nothing new on the okay I share this we okay Town tree inventory and Forestry management plan alen uh we're at 90% wow great great and website update I assume Bennett you haven't done anything on that that's fine correct thank you yeah and then UMass interns Brit is anything new not sure we need to keep doing that no you can take that off yeah okay state level initiatives uh chapter 87 update is really not going anywhere frustratingly because of the way our state government works but we I don't know what to do with that so there's nothing new on it significant tree ordinance sah no nothing new nice all right well that's the agenda except for comments uh Brooks are you still here Brooks maybe he's not okay so there's no public in attendance so I think we can uh call this a meeting thank you everyone thanks everybody thank you see you thank you I won't see you Saturday but I'll see you soon all right thanks everyone bye