 Yeah. Hi. I'm in Worcester, Vermont. You're in Worcester, Vermont. Yeah. Nice. You just stay for the solar. Yeah. I'm visiting a friend whose birthday it is today. So I just got here and had to jump into a meeting and yeah. Just to let you know, we are recording. Okay, great. And. It's two attendees. I'm going to make them hosts or not hosts, but promote the panelists. Sarah's here. Okay. Almost have a. Quorum. Yeah. Just pushing it off. Great. Yeah. But yeah, yesterday. I think we almost, I think we have a quorum as soon as Sarah and. Brit turn on their screens. And Ellen's here too. Yes, we have a quorum. Yay. Sarah. All right. So we'll start in one minute. I think we're all here except Bennett, who's not going to be here. He said family stuff happened. So. Yeah. And I'm in Vermont. At my friend's house. But I will be able to have brought my notes and I have all the stuff we need. So I think we can go. I need, we need someone to take minutes. Eleanor Britt either of you want to do that. I did it last time. If somebody else wants to do it. I can do it. Okay. So Britt will be our note taker. I'm eating food. So I was turning my screen off for that part, but I call it. I'm here. Okay. Good. Anna Carter is visiting. She's not. Putting her screen on and. David. His name. Last name. Let me see what it is. David Matavozian is also here. So. Yeah. All right. So, um, gender. Let me get the agenda. I can't have this. All right. Give me one more second. Okay. So announcements and public comments. Anyone have any comments? Much time today, unfortunately, but I want to say two things. One, if you guys would like to. I'm able to have connections with the, like, University Massachusetts Amherst clubs that would be interested in tree planting. If you want people from there to come help out on the tree planting on the 13th. If that. If, like, if you guys are open to that. Yeah. We're totally open to having volunteers helping. It's good to know ahead of time, if possible, but if people show up, sometimes that's fine too. Yeah. Yeah. And then. Secondly, last week. You asked if somebody could write something for the hamster. Is that about. Benefits of trees. And I volunteered, but I. Did not have the time. I couldn't even figure out how to submit something to hamster. Because that's, I apologize. Okay. Do you have something written? No. Okay. If you have something written, it'd be easy to show you how to submit it. So, you know, if you can do that for the next month, that'd be great. Whenever, whenever you can. Yeah. Great. All right. Anything else. So next is approval of minutes. Everyone read the minutes, of course, and we're ready to approve them. Yes. I wasn't at last month's meeting. So I will abstain. Okay. Anyone have any changes or comments? All right. In favor of the minutes. Hands up. Okay. Good. So you record that and. Let's see hours. I'll go through my screen. Julian hours. Probably about five. Okay. Ellen. Probably. Two. Okay. Anyone have any changes or comments? All right. In favor of the minutes. Hands up. Okay. Two. Two. Sarah. Two. Great. Two. Two. Somebody's not on the screen, so I can't remember who it is. Who am I missing here? Julian. Julian. No, I just went. Sorry. Just went. Me. I'm probably at about eight hours. I thought we had one more person. Oh, she's not here for some reason. Okay. She'd probably be late. Okay. And then I'll find out his hours. Good. All right. So that's good. Chair's report. Some girl scouts will be joining us on this Saturday. I don't know how many yet. We're planting this Saturday. We need to finalize the town council proclamation. So we'll talk about that a little later. Okay. So. Somebody lives. Wave finders on the butternut farm was upset about a tree being removed. And it was a private tree. There's nothing we can do, but. We did. I did say that she could come to this meeting and we would look at the site. That's down off of. It's done in South Amherst. Long metal drive, I think. Alan, do you know about that? Yes. Long metal drive. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know about that tree. Maybe we can help them plant somewhere nearby. My head. David's article. I don't have your email address, David. So at some point. If you can either send that to the committee or to me, that'd be great. Yeah. I attended an insect pest webinar. That was interesting. Couple of the insects are not really a concern for us, like box tree moth. They don't cause that much damage on most of the other trees. They like red maples, but don't kill red maples. So. No, some interesting things. Beach leaf disease is very cold, hearty. There's no solution. Trees have a three to 10 year survival. Gap after they first get infected. And the Elm zigzag soft light. And they don't cause that much damage on most of the other trees. They like red maples, but don't kill red maples. And the Elm zigzag soft light only affects Elms. Is it in Hampshire County? They said it's in Hampton and Berkshire. Do we have that Ellen? Or is that here? Elms zigzag soft light. Do we have that in Hampshire? I've not seen that around. Okay. Might be. But they said it's a healthy trees usually recover from it. And there's already a viral control insect or pest here that. We'll keep the numbers down. So that didn't sound like a big problem. So other than the ones we already know about that our problem, like emerald ash borer and. Two line chestnut beetle chestnut borer and some of the other ones. Yeah. Had a lot really delgated. We're okay. So most of the other thing, nothing new. There were more webinars coming up. Sometimes the free was one on April 30th. That sounds interesting. It's a. The summer tree summit. And I may join that. It's $20. But it's a good way to learn more about stuff. I find out about most of these through the citizens forest, the newsletter, which I send you the link to. So I encourage everyone to read through that and skin through that. There's usually a lot of good information. Are these our Henry? Who puts these on? Who puts these on? Citizen. Well, different groups put them on. Yeah. Yeah. It's a really good way to learn about them. And learn other things. I encourage everyone to read citizen forest and newsletter. You can subscribe and then it comes out every three months. Used to be monthly. Used to be written by Molly. He was from Amherst. She would come to our meetings a lot and help out. Okay. Oh, I. Subscribe to Northern Woodland magazine. It's one of my favorite magazines comes monthly. And if anyone's interested, I would offer to buy you a free subscription. It's really, it's more about forests than street trees, but just lots of information about trees and forests and. Cutting trees for lumber and hunting under for it. Just everything. You know, preserving forests. Restoring forests. Yeah. So it's a great magazine. If you're interested, let me know and I will get your free subscription. Since I donate money anyway, I figured this is a way to donate money to them. And help other people once. I have not found a canopy for a booth for. You have a canopy. I have a canopy. Yeah. Awesome. All right. I wasn't here last month. I have two canopies. Okay. So that's it. And that's the 20th, right? It's, um, Yeah. Stainability fair. Yeah. Yes. That's what it is. Great. Awesome. But somebody will have to remind me to bring it. Okay. We'll put it in the minutes and then I'll remind you. Okay. So Henry will remind. Good. Um, We'll talk about the same sustainability festival soon. The nursery. We need to get back there and get the trees planted. We may have to do an extra planting. We'll talk about that a little later. The Arlington tree committee posts a lot of interesting stuff on Facebook. And I follow them. So it might be good if some of the others of us. Follow the Arlington Massachusetts tree committee. And they follow us in the Greenfield tree committee. It's nice that we like each other's posts. Helps get all of us more publicity. So I encourage that. Sherry Wilson appreciation. I think someone wants to plant a tree. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I remember Sherry Wilson who used to write the garden column for the Hampshire Gazette. And she covered tree things back in the day. Forget what that is, but that was an email that came into us. Henry, just don't jump in. She was reaching out to me for information about planting at Memorial. Once a Memorial library. Maybe. That's what it was about. Sherry Wilson called me and wanted to discuss. And what are the trees that have been planted there recently? At the library. Something I was library. Well, I thought it was something else. So maybe I'm getting that confused. There might be something else, but I didn't know since you didn't know for sure. Good. Possibly. One of the things I found in Citizen Forest and newsletter is their environmental justice grants. And somebody would need to take that on as a project and research, whether we can. Whether we can apply and whether we have a, a possible thing that we would want to fund. So that would take some work of somebody to do. So that's all coming up in the agenda. That's the end of my stuff that I've noticed. Julian. Coach as report. Yeah, absolutely. So. So, I'm going to go back to April. I'm going to go back to April. This letter has reached out to me. To publicize the tree planting. For April in the bulletin. One thing I was wondering, she was wondering when the Sue hugus tree planting memorial. Planting was going to be within the nine to noon window. About 11 is what I told her. Is that right? Okay. The library tree. Yeah. Yeah. So the other thing is I got an email from. Lauren Mills asking about the. Other tree. In butternut. Farms. I just responded that it was a private tree, but that the committee would certainly. I would bring up a possibility. Of a tree planting. Long menu. Yeah, I know. Yeah. So there's that. The other thing. Is that I have. Shared. Shared with the middle school science teachers that. Our committee does these work days and for kids in the environmental action program and middle school. That they could come out and help us plant trees. In the future. In future dates. So we'll be giving a presentation about what we. Do sort of encouraging people to come there. Sometime in May. And then. The last thing I had. Was just that I attended the tree ones and porters dinner. Anything to report from that. I think it was a little bit more relevant to what we do, but there was a presentation on. Like electric equipment, electric chainsaws that sort of going green in that industry. And then emergency first aid in the field. And applying that. Thank you. All right. Three ones report. So we did have a legal tree cutting. And the property owner. We had to look at 300 West street. Last month. There was a. Property owner was putting in addition on their property and they filed the permits with the planning department. And, you know, all the. Stuff and. I guess they didn't know the permitting process well enough. Or somebody didn't refer to them. before they were supposed to and then they filed for their driveway permit for a new curb cut which activates that's within DPW which activates my notification and I went down to look and they had already brushed the tree out and left just the stem standing there so they were fined $300 which is defined and they paid a replacement the replacement cost which for an 18 inch blue spruce was $1,620 so a total of $1,920 they've paid it their project has been given to go ahead to continue because everything was put on hold they apologized profusely they said they weren't aware of what was what they need to do it so and then I've talked with them and they were going to plant some the town will be planting some trees and they have they have there are two properties there that are connected sort of they're actually have plantings designed in their planting plant put trees back in there and then I think the town will put a few more in further down the road a little bit so this is just past croc and farm elementary school heading south on the left hand side that was the first one we've had in a while it's been a long time for South Amherst Common we've so we took down three compromised Norway maples so two of them were that very dead crowns there are less than 50% of the live crown was still there not coming back they had sap rot forming on the main trunk in the upper crown so we took those down there's another nori maple that had a significant cavity in it right below the branch union where the crowns sort of forms and the cavity wasn't I didn't really think it was as bad until I started taking a closer look realized that it was connected to another cavity further up on the other side of the tree so since we were doing tree planting I have to take that one down and we took down a red maple that was had a significant stem girling root around the trunk and you know 50% over 50% of the crown the main stem was dead and we just had a few lower lateral branches that came up that were still alive so we took that tree down and we took down a dead elm tree on the south Amherst Common so those stumps have been ground and those are the locations that have opened up the planting locations for the new trees so there are 12 trees including the elm library tree being planted on the south Amherst Common this weekend this Saturday we have so the species will be red maple swamp white oak and sycamore being planted on the crown it's going to be our first first time in a while that we purchased we've had trees donated that were containerized but these were actually purchasing from Wansnick Wansnick nursery they actually had the American sycamore which the other nurseries didn't have in stock so it's going to be containerized material not grow bags not bald and burlap so we're going to have to pay attention to root pruning those before we plant them to make sure we don't develop stem girling roots and tomorrow Thursday I'm picking up the Beirut tree stalk from Bigelow nursery I have the grow bags in stock and we will need to you know relatively quickly find time to get these planted in the grow bags down at the station road horse farm nursery so if we can come up with a potential date to plant trees in the grow bags as soon as possible that'd be great well one question is I went down there to look for a place to connect a hose is there a spigot or anything I didn't find it there is there a spigot there we have to put the meter in which is something we can work on I can also bring the water tank down there so for for for getting the trees in the building was winterised for the winter we haven't the water park was still needs to put the meter in but yeah I can have the water tank down there too I'll probably start watering it sometime in May but I just figured to take a hike down there and see okay good idea there was oh go ahead I was just gonna say there was a lot of chatter on the next door app about the tree cutting on the south common and I I quieted them down made them all to come on Saturday so that's great so this is on the next next door it's an app called next door and then you like register for the town you live in and it just I don't really follow it but I got an alert and it was like what's going on with the all the trees being cut down on the south common why does it you know and it went into this whole everybody started complaining but yeah interesting yeah thanks for sharing that maybe I should get an app no probably not I was just going to say that the planting of the bare root saplings seems like an activity that young volunteers could help with perhaps more effectively than a regular planting so Julian maybe those middle school students that you've mentioned or you know yeah like I'm thinking about like my 10 year old I feel like that's something that that a young kid could help with so if we end up doing that outside of our normal monthly planting um maybe we can try to mobilize some people that don't normally come out to help with plantings that's true although the kids mostly like digging the holes so they're they're probably not very good at digging the holes that's true yeah okay I think they could throw dirt at each other or something good um I'm going to interrupt the well let's just finish with the the treasurer's report then I'll go back to what we have guests and I want to let them talk about the issues they came for so uh treasurer's report Sarah the committee count balance is 11,067 dollars and 29 cents which reflects 256 dollars spent for the arbor day seedlings spent for what the arbor day seedlings okay yeah and um the money so the money that Alan received from the fine has not come in yet no all right can you keep uh make yourself a note to keep track of that yes great thank you good all right uh social media report yes I um will plan to post something probably on Friday uh like an actual post about the tree planting um or Saturday so people know about it um that's all I have to report and Facebook I made um an event for the um the tree planting I also made an event for the sustainability festival tree giveaway um and I've I've also been like you know putting in a few different other little things you know just of interest to tree lovers like us and good thanks anything else on that no no I don't think so oh yeah and I also posted it to um I posted the weekend's event to neighborhood or next door yeah next door I put it on next door I also shared it to a group maybe two groups in the Facebook world great thank you I feel like next door is the new the new thing up and coming thing next door is old it is pretty tired of it yeah it's a lot of complaining yeah is it worth us putting an account on or I don't think you can do that I think you have to be an individual resident and that you have to get invited by your neighbors and oh I see well maybe as a town committee they would maybe that could be um yeah um or we'll just do it individually that's fine if Shashana posts hey we're doing a planting on that yeah that would be good and I think it's great um Ellen that that people are questioning when they see a tree taken down you know I was uh I pruned a dead branch off the tree in front of the library the Jones Library a few weeks ago or a month ago and I had my saw out and I was pruning it off and lots of people walked by nobody questioned what I was doing you know and I mean I felt like I was doing something good but it would have been nice people say hey are you supposed to be cutting that down you know so if people challenge that Alan's taking down trees legitimately that's good you know it means people are looking and thinking so I've had people um I've been eating like during December I was eating the berries off the tree in front of the library and people came up to me are like are you sure and I was like yes sure then some of them tried it and then their believers know which experience too it's a black gump tree I think right yeah the black gump in front of the library it's like right next to the road like right where the crosswalk is in front of the library yeah we could do like an Amherst tree foresting foraging walk that'd be fun well we we talked about it when we did the um the downtown tree tour oh nice okay yeah yeah all right so edible trees tour around yeah okay that'd be next year's thing maybe yeah okay so we got a lot on the agenda one of the things is the second side of the work days and planting um in the tree nursery but Anna do you want to talk about um misty meadows yes sure um I can turn on I don't know how to turn on my my face but somehow I need to see an option here that's okay you don't have to see my face I guess um first of all I would like to say that in my experience next door since you brought it up started during COVID when people were feeling isolated and you can distinguish your neighborhood more or less sometimes you get things that aren't exactly in your neighborhood and it's it's more than just complaining like people say oh I have a bear that showed up or a porcupine behind my tree and sometimes it's warnings and I don't think it's all complaining so it's not I'm sorry I said that I do think that a lot of I mean there are things that are more complaining like Amherst, Indy and things like that but um anyway they try to control there is some kind of control on it so that the conversation doesn't get outrageous and I just hardly ever do anything at all or ever post but I I did hear about good electricians and things like that so there is good information exchange anyway I do have a report from my neighborhood the suggestion is that if we could have some kind of input about when we would like it to have the two trees put in we would like to do it after our probably mid to late May annual meeting so that we can get more neighborhood participation and it is just two trees but still we were going to I think it would bring some visibility to the shade treat committee and hopefully we could again have it as a community bonding experience and we are you know perhaps even going to have a a dedication ceremony these are our two past presidents that have passed away that that the that's the memorial for that so if it could be sort of like early to mid-June or even later I don't know if that's too late to plant trees but I think our meeting is going to be it's not set yet but towards the mid to end of May so it'll give us a little time to see when people are available if if you're flexible to that or if you I know you have a tight schedule yourself so anyway that's the that's the feedback I got so you would like the planting to be early June I think early June could early to mid June could be good if that's not too late no it's not too late generally yeah yeah probably more like mid June but if we could be able to get some information from the neighbors to see when people are available too so we would like to have an opportunity to get as many people out participating in our neighborhood as possible so if you're flexible that way we could communicate about it once we find out when our people are available I mean generally we plant on second Saturday since it's just two trees a couple of us could just come plant on the valley and drop the stuff over ahead of time okay so we'd be pretty flexible that way yeah okay so second Saturday you're saying it's probably when you're going to schedule it well no I'm saying is you know if if we can combine it with second Saturday that's the easiest for us but since it's since it's just two trees it may be that we just a couple of us just come plant them independently of the whole committee and the whole second Saturday work day okay well henry I'll I'll just keep you posted as soon as I know more information from the neighbors I don't even know when our meeting exactly is but usually it's toward the end okay and we're going to talk soon about the second Saturday workday schedule and if we the June one is going to be in that area then it would be great to combine it so hang on for a little while more if you can sure great well thank you so much you're welcome and Lauren knows was here but I don't see her now so Lauren if you're here you could speak up she is here okay so we'll move on then to the presentations and discussions first one is the tree nursery planting how soon would you want the trees to be planted on the seedless seedlings you're muted yeah thank you the um as soon as possible they're I mean they're bare root trees so they have no soil they have to be kept a cold dark place which I don't have a lot of those um and so as soon as better if we can do it within a week or less um could we combine it with the um South Commons since they're just not even a quarter mile apart if we have enough people yeah that would require a good amount of people because we you know we have over two hours of planting probably in South Amherst if we finish with the library tree yeah I mean that's maybe take a break and do it continue that day or do you have the trees already or are you saying a week within delivery day I'm picking the trees up uh Thursday okay well how many people are available this Saturday to continue after the first planting I don't know yet I'm out of town this Saturday yeah I have I have to work at the museum unfortunately okay yeah I probably have to go check out like open houses and whatnot but um but like the school that I also substitute at um they have school off this next week so I do have like a little more free time next week okay I have no time after well possibly Sunday morning I could do but then I'm on the road all week so um Julian do you have school vacation week next week too uh not yes yeah Amherst is off next yeah um so that most of that week I would be free if we wanted to do something then yeah I can be I'm I'm somewhat flexible next week yeah so pick a day that would work and um it's during the week oh I'm not flexible Friday um I could do like Wednesday morning yeah I think I think that would work for me okay so Ellen would Wednesday be okay or is that too long um we can make Wednesday work okay I won't be there but why don't we say nine o'clock Wednesday morning meet at the uh the tree nursery okay all right and I'll be away next week I'm sorry if the tree nursery or at the um location on camera tree nursery yes stay sure okay got it and we can volunteer as if possible right yes okay great so who can be there okay so 17th 17th yeah yeah brit julian shashana yep sarah no okay and I'll you know we'll we'll let that know so and we'll put it out maybe we'll get some volunteers uh david if you're still on you could add uh you could search for students to help with that it'd be great and uh maybe get something on facebook and on instagram saying families invited to help plant the new evenings yeah and we can also talk to people at the event on saturday too yeah and don't forget next door yeah there's a new uh parents the old parents listserv which had like 800 people on it just closed and now there's a new one so I don't know how many people are on it but since people don't have their kids in school next week if they're not in camps they might be more inclined to bring them to help out so just to keep them very good so that's the tree nursery we're set hopefully that'll all be done that day um we have all 40 trees uh saplings alan um are you talking about arbor day saplings for the nursery you have all 40 saplings ready you'll get them up Thursday all 40 good good so we'll get them all in great um they won't be nearly as hard to plant as planting trees so I don't think it'll take that long but um all right second saturday workdays this saturday we're all set we all talked about that um we'll meet at the common and then um do we have plans for may I think alan you said something rambling road country corners over by applewood off of west bay road and so we're going to plant plant some new trees there plus we plant ones that didn't make it okay and june is north hampton road june would be north hampton road okay and what about university village oh that hasn't yeah it's not a town road okay so we'll have to figure out how to do something there or at least nearby there okay anything else on plans for workdays July we can wait we can maybe do another planting or a work day that uh treat care day yeah good all right sustainability festival we need a schedule of who can be there at the beginning middle and end i'm pretty flexed why we'll be walking stilts for some of the time there but i'm happy to uh i'm happy to do any schedule so I think we usually divide it into a third of the time it's ten to four say nine o'clock to set up and you know four thirty or so so if we do two two and a half hours shifts or a little longer that'd be great someone who uh make a schedule mind me henry what what are we tabling what are we doing well we're handing out the saplings handing out saplings handing out information talking to people we'll put up the signs who has the signs allen do you have them or julian i do yep yeah okay so bring those we'll post those up um yeah whatever literature we have i've got some literature i'll dig through my stuff we never really came up with a new a new brochure yes britt i have a bunch of stuff that my students made last year for their tree fast thing um including a tree trivia game and um i have to look in my barn but um quite a few three related activities that people could engage with in different ways that I can bring okay that's great and now are you going to bring big uh cross section cookies of trees yes that's always a big hit i'll bring i'll try to bring some trees as well you know okay dog trees yeah the best thing you ever brought was when you brought that tree that had been strangled by the girdling roots and uh people could really see what happened so if you happen to have another one of those that'd be good i'll look for it okay um good so who wants to do the first shift um so be me getting there around nine so setting up and started to bag trees and allen do you have enough bags for the trees i'm getting i'm getting the the um which is yeah i should good okay i um i so have so um i we have 50 of those professor elwood sorry yeah professor elwood pickle thorns activity book um all about trees i'm glad that's what but it's got all kinds of you know stuff i don't know if you can see it um it's quite thick there's a lot of stuff here so we have 50 of those booklets and we're gonna i've been trying to get shershawna copy so she can see if she can work it into the months and the more library activity stuff but um i don't think we're going to give away 50 of those books there um so we could um possibly try to give these out or have an activity with those books with the kids that harvard day sustainability festival okay um before we go shershawna hold on shershawna how many hours did you have this last month um probably like six okay good thanks okay allen should we do the i think we've done it in the past like a little strip of paper about how to plant the tree saplings or what to expect with those three breed or species two species but um yeah it's a great idea um yeah so someone we need to write that up i can do that um just um quickly sorry remind me what we're handing out um rich hazel and shag bar kickery american rich hazel and shag bar kickery yeah okay good um does anyone have what we wrote up last time i think i might have it somewhere i can look for it and send it to you you can add that a little bit of how to plant yeah but a little yeah i'll just make a bunch of them i i can help out that day but i can't do the first shift so um because i'm getting home super late that night um so i'll just whoever's doing the first shift i can email them the things or i'll cut them up myself and drop them off somebody i could do first shift i can probably do two shifts because i'm not i feel like a slacker because i'm not going to be there this weekend um for the planting and i i have a ton of books and you know we could even put it's easy to put stuff together for kids i think um so i'll just bring what i have and i'll i can do the first and second okay shift i can do first but um like i'll then like it depends on when like the open houses are going to be on that particular day that when i'm going to take off from that but like i can start off being there okay so i i divided up nine to 11 30 11 30 to two and two to four 30 so all right if um sheshan if you can do the first shift i'll do i'll do the second shift i hope i can do the last one if that's where we need that'd be good sarah we're moving back into our house on that day um it's the only day we have family available to help us move furniture so i'm gonna come for the first hour but i can't stay until 11 30 i'm probably be there like nine to nine nine thirty nine four okay um ellen can you do somewhere your way um no i get home late that night i'll do the second shift when that starts at 11 11 30 yeah all right so i'll maybe do the end and uh you know that should work for me okay so we have sarah and brit and sheshana for the first shift and brit and ellen for the second shift and julie and me for the third shift and maybe ben it can help out too and who has the so those of us who are doing the first shift do we will we have this the materials that need to be set up initially or whoever has those will drop off like do i need to bring a table do we have a table um i have a table i could uh loan okay yeah so i'll get a table um and then whatever as literature i have i'll arrange to get that to allen or to julie and okay no julie is not on the first shift so allen or or to you brit yeah you can put yeah you can bring to my house if you want um if folks want to um get me the material friday i can load it onto our truck because we we actually deliver a lot of the tables for the the event for the all the town stuff so we're pulling stuff they'll be bringing the trees and whatever else um so it would be easier for people to just arrange to drop it off or have you pick it up friday before the event we put it in the back of the truck we'll park it inside overnight and first thing in the morning roll out with it um so i'll be there um okay so we'll try to get stuff and julie has the sign so we're gonna have to be there and i'll go through my literature see what i have anyone else has something to be good yeah get that over there in time good yeah i'll probably bring the canopy i'll bring the canopy that morning i can bring it right at nine and then i'll drop it off and drive my car back home and run back um yeah okay good uh that's good that sounds like we've got that covered um what's next on the agenda anything else for the sustainability festival did anybody respond henry to um stefanie's request for a booth for a demonstration of some kind i did not we didn't really come up with anything did we okay did we request i can see us doing like maybe a pruning workshop led by henry yeah i think at this late date there's so much else going on i'm not gonna be able to do that and you know i didn't say we do it so we're not on the schedule to do that so i don't think we need to yeah let's just have the booth um but you know that's the type of thing that if we thought about it ahead of time and really worked something out then we could say we would like to do this presentation at that and also in terms of literature to hand out something else would be great to have that done ahead of time you know like if david had written that letter for the to the editor maybe we could print out copies and have that on the table things like that ways to get our name out to people in you know useful and nice looking pieces of literature we have that lovely display thing that she's shown his friend made but we don't quite have stuff that fits in it so stuff like that we need that needs to be planned in advance so start thinking for next year about that and when you're there this year like think what could this table use what could our presence here use to really help expand our message to people yeah do we have a tablecloth for the table and a tablecloth i could bring yeah okay yeah let me put that down i usually have the tree city usa flags we drape over the table to this side yeah maybe a couple rocks in case it's windy bunch of rocks would be great if people can bring rocks to put on literature yes everything always blows away there and i have table clamps that are good for the uh flags and tablecloths oh clamps that's good to you great okay anything else sustainability wise festival wise no okay next is arbor day which is april 26th um we don't have to do something we're already doing a lot in april but you know if we want to do something that could get in the proclamation too but allen anything about a speaker or that's just not happening at this point yeah it's not going to happen okay so maybe we don't need to do something on the actual massachusetts arbor day which is april 26th different states have different dates so you know there's probably one that's the date of the 20th and we can say we're celebrating kansas's arbor day or whatever but does anyone have an idea or want to do something on that day is there some sort of proclamation we normally put before the council yeah well that's what we need all these dates and details for do you want to work with allen on the proclamation i often do but sure i'd be happy to okay great let's see if i can dig up last year's copy good yeah so the the events for april are the uh second set of the work day the um nursery day on the whatever date that is that's next wednesday and then um the sustainability festival good all right we could have like a tree happy hour where we invite people from all the committees in the region to just meet at a certain place and talk about trees yeah actually i think the arlington tree committee has to meet the committee day and they just have like you know snacks and people come and talk about trees and yeah yeah but i think uh going to the sustainability festival and inviting people to our events is usually where we talk to people so but if you want to organize something more that's great you know no okay not you you i was just thinking about you know it was interesting to hear from uh like the folks in the north hampton committee and greenfield and you know is there a way to learn more from these other groups in the in the region but it is coming up rather quickly and there's a lot going on this month so maybe for future future you know adventure well we usually meet with the other committees we do our sort of picnic in august so we can do that again this year i i like that a lot yeah and try to reach out to more towns this year yeah good all right uh the mary everyday plans you did mary maple table um i emailed with um the town hall and they bumped it up to um paul's desk and um i haven't heard back okay he was one of christy that's still yeah yeah i missed it so was this um about where the table should go before it goes to jones or did the plans change on that yeah it was um offering it to the town hall and i i was in original communication with angela and she said that she wanted to bump it up to paul so it's on paul so that would just be until the jones is ready to take it or who would be alone okay yeah it's in my barn so yeah ellen i think you said that jones didn't want it until after the new livers built that's what they told me oh great okay good love like we'd love to have it but not until like 2025 or six good okay and then oh ellen you were gonna make the tag for it right it says this is i'm gonna do that whenever ready yes all right so yeah so as soon as paul says yes and we have a place for it i'd like to get that happening in both the tag and the table there yeah sorry i think i could be wrong but i at least overheard that the town manager is like on leave or something currently so it might be a little while i think he i think he plans on coming back i'm not sure i haven't heard that ellen is that true i'm not aware of it but i wouldn't necessarily be so do we want to bring the table to the sustainability festival oh i think that's a fantastic idea good my car is gonna be full but you can make a couple trips okay um yeah i'll get it to ellen but you need to be on something and protect it a little bit but i think yeah it's very low to the it's very low to the ground yeah i mean not very low to the ground but it's not like a you know standard go on the table maybe the table on the table uh it's not that low to the ground yeah it's like it's a coffee table ish i guess would it be damaged if somebody sat on it no it's pretty sturdy looking i wouldn't want someone to stand i wouldn't want to climb on it either i wouldn't i wouldn't want them to but like i could see it happening and like if it would be something it wouldn't be damaged it's not it's not delicate it's functional but i'm wondering if we can uh maybe just put some stakes and ribbon around it so people don't touch it but they can see it close i don't even heard it to be touched but but yeah we could we could figure out the ideal placement for it when when it's there but i'll make a note to bring that Alan if you have four stakes that's a very maple sculpture that the student made that might become that's very heavy because it's like 60 individual cookies of various sizes i'll see what i can bring that day okay i'm thinking if uh Alan if you bring four stakes and we just put a ribbon around the table then nobody's going to stand on it or sit on it but it'd be very visible yeah okay we can do that okay good great that's great all right uh town tree inventory is next um yeah so they uh we're in uh process of getting the selected vendor on line to start the inventory um so as soon as they have responded with the proper information they can start inventory which will should take uh three or four weeks to inventory the town interesting interesting little thing about the new um the new chamber of commerce director Jacob i forget his last name right now um he in his previous town participated in the tree inventory of their that town so he's he's passionate about trees so just so good to hear yeah all right um the urban forestry management plan still working on it uh need the uh need the inventory to complete it but it still worked i need to do on before we get to that phase so all right so i'm gonna combine that into one agenda item for next month and we'll just yeah good okay uh website update uh but it's not here so i'll check in with him about that and brit in the minutes if you can win any anytime someone says they'll do something if you can make sure their name is listed with that good um ongoing items environmental justice neighborhood planting does anyone want to look into this grant and start doing some research on that sorry there's a lot of noise there's a party that i'm missing at the moment anyway um all right so we should table that for now umass interns anything new on that you never got us any but that's okay maybe david he's not at the meeting anymore but maybe he'll get some UMass students who want to get involved um state level initiatives i did there was another push to uh finalize the update to chapter 87 of mass general law and i did right to the head of the senate and the head of the house and to joe cummerford and the mindy dawn so that's my what i did but not much else happening there significant tree ordinance anything sarah i think sarah is still hearing us no no update yeah and the solar bylaw group anything julian i believe actually the next meeting i'll be going to is the meeting of the town council committee to review the solar bylaw um that should be happening here in like 30 minutes okay but that is all that i have anyone have anything else they want to add or i had one question which was i noticed some trees were taken down on west not west street um Henry street uh by like right before the divot um by some of those new construction homes a little bit past uh shoots very low two trees um sort of up pretty close to the street i don't know how far the public way extends back um but i noticed just a private homeowner out there with his chainsaw and i was wondering if that was those new houses that are kind of go down the dip and then come up and there's a new house exactly so none of those trees there are town trees um actually they're all private um we have a the right away there's very narrow on industry okay thank you for noticing because i hadn't noticed that i haven't been on Henry street in a couple of days so yeah i just went down yesterday in a second that's interesting thank you though really yeah alan are you are you okay if i bring up the um b city oh definitely a thing so um i had mentioned this to alan a while ago maybe i had mentioned it our at our august picnic i i think um but there is like the tree city you know uh i don't know if it's technically a certification or or what but that that process there is another process by which towns and cities can be approved as b cities and it doesn't just mean that you know you're looking out for bees it's really about pollinators and particularly native pollinators um and this is something that um my environmental education students this year instead of a tree event they're putting on a bug related event um thinking about how to support bugs and so part of this is that they and i thought it might be um good if the town could pursue a b city um certification so part of that requirement is that basically the town agrees to reduce pesticide use it sounds like we're already not using a ton of pesticides um and that we commit to having native plantings around and i am doing some education and outreach related to native plants and i thought the tree committee might be um kind of a natural home for those for meeting those requirements because we could just work into our existing outreach something on native trees that um supports you know native bug populations and that kind of thing so i guess i'm just bringing this up to see if it's something that the committee would be open to or interested in um and you know if so then i think the next i'm not i'm not certain what the next steps next steps would be but present something to the town council um it sounds like it's a three hundred dollar fee which i think my students and i could figure out um and um then there must be a b city thoughts okay um i see no problem with that but again we take someone organizing and planning and all that stuff um i'm you know when i talk to people who are really big on pollinated gardens i say you know trees are some of the best pollinator plants in the world so right publicizing that would be a great thing to do right yeah exactly when we're talking about native plants and native pollinator gardens please often don't get included in that but they absolutely are supporting massive you know supporting bug populations in a very significant way yeah i like it i like the idea yeah i like it too um i just wanted to offer i i know that the shade tree committee covers trees um but i often think that the um buffer strip is when in areas where it's not wide enough to support a tree could be used to support a shrub or pollinator plants meadow plants perennials um so maybe there's another group maybe this is something with the sustainability committee or um if we were able to branch out um outside of our jurisdiction to support planting in the right of way where there's not room for a tree that supports um pollinators and could work towards the b-city so i think that's a great idea and maybe there's some and we could do um further yeah that's great i think of those little parking lot islands as well as a good spot for that that's great that's a great way that our committee actually because we are that's sort of our turf the the tree belt grass belt so you know um one of the presenters at last january's tree wardens conference um the the spoke about um companion planting so um they have a project where they not only do they you know provide play provide a tree uh to plant in a public way to provide all those great benefits that trees provide but they also provide um other plants to be planted with it um to help benefit the soil and other um so they have companion planting essentially it's not just a tree it's always a tree with you know three or four other plants that get planted in the same area um so that's it's an interest concept makes sense in some areas are those like i guess it depends on the parking lot or whatnot but those strips are they public land i mean public domain they are in the public way generally speaking um and the property adjacent property owner is responsible for maintaining them so if a property owner decides i'm not going to mow that grass strip then it doesn't get mowed um and so if it's um you know someone wants to take on planting and watering and maintaining you know a perennial garden of some kind or something in the grass belt that's it's up to the adjacent property owner to do that so there was an interesting article in the new york times about people fighting over the um the tree spots in new york city planting flowers and gardens and things like that and yeah and fencing them in to keep dogs out and it's a pretty interesting article but i don't think we'd have as much controversy but we take someone you know with our subset of our committee saying we want to do this and this is what we're going to do so there's a it's a great idea i'm not trying to say that but so you're looking at you're talking about planting in the public way um so somebody has to purchase the material you know the plants somebody's gonna have to water and establish them um if we're planting in a parking lot violent that's generally maintained by the town um so again purchasing maintaining and watering and unfortunately the quickest easiest maintenance um for something is to mow it um and uh so if it's not maintained it starts looking unkept and people get upset so it's a it's a process so if in order to make something like this work you actually have to go pretty deep into process of operation in order to make it successful so this um we have a busy month coming up and i'm gonna have to go very soon but let's um let's put this on the agenda maybe for a fall meeting to like discuss how can we make this happen maybe it's not us who actually do it but we put out the word you know those grass strips that used to have trees they're too small for trees but let's does anybody want to start a garden in front of the house or you know put in some bushes and we will help you or we advise or whatever i i read through the b-city application so a lot of it is educational material you know so maybe it is more just the the committee or the town you know has a program where they educate people about planting in that grass belt maintaining that grass belt with bee-friendly plants entries so i would actually recommend to the committee that somebody really get more information and see what it would really take we could even be happy to meet with somebody in a smaller meeting to go over the application process and see how we could what it would take to work it into you know our planning and operations there's some it's some of it's like big plan like when you're renovating the north end was common or you're doing graph park or um kendrick park you know the plants that are purchased for those projects are native bee-friendly material essentially it's pretty layered i think yeah alan i'll i'll follow up with you on that i mean i think you're right my impression is that a lot of it is about education and outreach and uh there are no like firm requirements about pesticide use it's kind of like committing as a town to say we're not we're going to use less you know fewer pesticides or you know it's kind of just like saying that this is something that we are thinking about and actively working on in our approach to trees and grounds which i think you all are already doing a you know an amazing job but i'll follow up with you on that and then i think this conversation about the graph strips is as henry says kind of maybe a longer term um conversation and you know requires more strategic development um but the bee city could be kind of a platform for developing some of these ideas yes um i wanted to mention um can you it's all blurry but i've got a i picked out a song it's called my roots go down for us to sing um at the event and i posted it to our facebook event page a video of it so you can hear how it goes but i also have like some printouts of the words that we could each have and it's um my roots go down by sarah pertole p r p i r t l e and i wanted to make that announcement during our meeting so that people of the public could find it and uh and join in too but i'll also um email the the committee that link the video which event is this for just so i have it in the notes correctly this is for the library yeah okay well i do have to go you guys are welcome to continue the meeting but thanks everyone we have some good ideas and i'm looking forward to planting again on saturday okay yeah all right take care have a great evening thanks everybody thanks