Letter: Include Purchase Of Shade Trees In Town Budget
Photo: arborday.org
The following letter was sent to the Amherst Town Council on April 23, 2023. The Amherst Public Shade Tree Committee is asking Amherst residents to request that the Town Council include the purchase of shade trees as a line item in the town budget. Please consider sending a message to towncouncil@amherstma.gov if you agree that this is an important priority.
I would like to urge that the Council heed the request of the Amherst Public Shade Tree Committee to include the purchase of shade trees as a line item in the town budget in consideration of the following facts:
- The grant that once funded the purchase of these trees has long since been exhausted.
- Our Tree Warden must now purchase trees from an operational budget that is used for many other purposes.
- The cost of shade trees has been rising significantly.
- We currently have a beautiful mature tree canopy, but it is aging and vulnerable to diseases, pests, and climate change.
- Trees play vital roles in sequestering carbon, intercepting particulate matter, filtering airborne pollutants, absorbing stormwater, and cooling our neighborhoods.
- The presence of trees has a calming and healing effect on residents and visitors alike.
- Trees significantly improve property values.
Maintaining the town’s tree canopy is a commitment that the town must make to protect environmental health and ensure the wellbeing of future generations.
Thank you for your consideration of this vital issue.
John Root
John Root is a landscaper and naturalist and a resident of Amherst
This seems like a good time to, once again, point out the vacant shade tree openings in the North & South Pleasant Street sidewalks where the perfectly healthy flowering crab apples once grew. If memory serves me, those trees were destroyed because they were….messy? Never mind the beauty, natural carbon capture, habitat and cooling shade they provided.
Planting trees (like preserving historic homes) is an uncomplicated way to beautify the town without inviting unintended consequences like hurting the housing stock.