Needham’s Tree Preservation Committee will hold a listening session at Powers Hall on Wednesday, June 4, at 7 p.m. The committee is charged with finding ways to retain the town’s trees, particularly those being felled by private development. The main goal of the meeting is to learn more about the community’s concerns.
Tree Preservation Committee Chair and Select Board Chair Heidi Frail, and Deputy Town Manager Katie King said they’ve been receiving a lot of emails from Needham residents about arboreal matters.
“I’ve been on the Select Board for three years and I’ve received hundreds of emails about trees,” Frail said at the committee’s May 19 meeting.
Frail said tree regulation is a complex issue and the committee has just started its work. “If people come in and think they’re going to hear the answers, they will be super disappointed,” she said.
“We want to hear both the concerns and positive aspirations that people have,” committee member Fred Moder said. He predicted the committee will hear from many community members who fear losing control of their properties and worry about increased costs. Tree bylaws in other communities have raised the cost of tree removal and made some construction projects more expensive by requiring the payment of fees under certain circumstances.
Attendees at the listening session will air their thoughts in small groups. Each group will include a committee member who will report back to the larger group with a summary of questions and ideas. The meeting will end with an open mike for residents to share thoughts with the entire group and on the live Zoom feed.
The listening session will begin with the introduction of the members of the committee and a very brief overview of the issue.
“We should get people to think about public and private trees,” local builder and committee member Nick Tatar said.
According to Needham’s tree warden, Ed Olsen, most private trees and most public trees are not currently subject to regulation. However, trees on town property are, in general, being actively preserved by the town. For example, Olsen said the oak that graces the front of the Newman Elementary School is about 100 years old and regularly receives care from Needham Parks and Forestry.
On the other hand, a tree such as the 200-year-old London plane near the corner of South Street and Great Plain Avenue is privately owned, and there are no laws that protect it. The only trees on private property that are currently subject to regulation are those in or near wetlands.
A third category of trees, public shade trees, are subject to protection through state law. Public shade trees are located in berms or in the public right of way that abuts roadways. As was the case last summer on Manning Street, when a lot is cleared for new home construction public shade trees are often damaged.
The tree preservation committee’s main focus is private trees. It’s beginning a long process that could culminate in a bylaw to discourage the removal of private trees.
“A lot of people think a tree bylaw will forbid the taking down of trees but no community has done that, other than maybe Cambridge,” Olsen told the Observer.
He explained that most communities with bylaws use a “pay to play” system where developers or homeowners who choose not to save or replant trees pay into a fund that can be used to help reforest.
The process is more about education than punishment, Olsen said. “It’s all about getting people to understand that large shade trees have value, not only for aesthetics but for heating and cooling and a bunch of other things,” he said.
King pointed out that after the listening session the committee will have to narrow its goals. It will have to focus on which is more important, caliper or canopy. Caliper refers to the diameter of tree trunks and canopy is the overall tree cover.
According to the Charles River Watershed Association, Moder said, Needham’s canopy is 50%, down 5.4% in the last 15 years. “Our goal is to slow down tree loss and increase tree growth,” he said.
The listening session will also provide opportunity for written feedback and can be attended in person or viewed on Zoom.Â
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