Community preservation act (CPA) Request – legacy tree preservation
There are five requests for Weston CPA funds this spring. In no particular order, but rather the order in which I am paying attention to them, I thought I’d take a look at the general requests. Note that these have not gone through public hearing, and are not up for Town Meeting discussion yet. These are simply presentations to the Community Preservation Committee.
Imagine my delight to see Tree Advisory Group put in a request for tree preservation at the Case Estates. If you all didn’t know, I’m a major tree hugger– I am even taking an arboriculture course online with Penn State this winter. I know just enough to be dangerous (and have the email of my professor who can help me be less dangerous as needed).
In any case, Tree Advisory Group (TAG) here in Weston does not get enough attention. They are all about what makes Weston beautiful–the trees. Officially, they are about Community Tree Health. Unofficially, they are the guardians of the trees. And we need them more than ever–Lori Hess, Chair of TAG showed the following chart of trees needing removal from storm damage:
The two trees for which TAG is looking for CPC funding are, in order of importance: a butternut tree and a persimmon tree. The Butternut tree is exceedingly rare–it can also be called the white walnut, and it has been devastated in other places from a nasty canker. It is indeed a legacy tree and deserves all the care it can get. And TAG has found, in my opinion, the very best arborist company on the planet: Tree Specialists, Inc.
The second tree is a Persimmon. It’s incredible that we have one here in Weston–they are generally a southern tree, not so much for the northeast. It is probably liking the global warming. The female trees produce fruit–I wonder if this is a girl tree or a boy tree. Weston’s persimmon (and surely it is unique in this town) had some storm damage in 2020 and needs some care… let’s do it!
Request to CPC:
Butternut: invasive vine removal, cabling, structural pruning, deadwood removal.
Persimmon: structural pruning, deadwood removal
Total of $3,215 (estimate from Tree Specialists, Inc. which is, again in my opinion, totally reasonable for legacy trees)
There was some conversation about whether tree markers or information about those trees could be included in an amended budget request. That really should be done… a tree tour to Case Estates would be a most excellent Boy Scout project. Signage, information, perhaps a pamphlet at the trail head? Yes please.
More information on this soon.
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