 Great. We will call to order. Hello, everybody. Good to see you all. Good to see you, Sarah. Let's see. Do we have any guests to introduce themselves? Well, we have a new person who's interested named Sean Lopez. Sean. You can unmute and talk. There he comes. Victoria is also here without a picture. Somewhere. Yes. Yeah, sorry, I'm driving home from work. So I'm just gonna quickly introduce myself and then I'll just mute myself. That's okay. So yeah, I just reached out and thanks for having me as a guest. I'm also a guest. And I'm just trying to bring the cameras down permanently. So looking forward to. Some more community outreach. So. Yeah, thanks again. Great. Thanks for joining us. We're happy to have you. Another announcements before we get started with hearings. One other announcement is we tapped the maple trees yesterday and like spring today. Yeah. Definitely warmer. And I know the sugar maples are in decline so it's great that we're able to take advantage of them while we still got them. All right. Next up we have hearings. Well hold on Sarah we don't have Gordon here so we need someone to take minutes. Oh right thank you. I'll text him see where he is. Anybody want to be the secretary today? I can take notes. Okay. Yeah I can do it. Does everybody have the agenda or would it be helpful if I shared my screen? I think it would be helpful to share the screen. So if there's no further announcements I will move on to hearings. All right. So we did have a little flurry of activity of people requesting hearings none of them are going to happen. Well the new ones probably won't happen until April but possibly March. But we still have the North Common Trees which we've discussed before which I'll be posting for March tree hearing with the Shaitree committee. So we'll be planning a site visit before the next meeting to look at those trees and they'll be getting advertised in the paper and they'll feel good opportunity for discussion. Amherst College has submitted an application to remove two trees on South Pleasant Street kind of in front of where they just removed that house just after Route 9 heading south. So they may want to do that in April for tree hearing. I'm in discussion with them now on what their plans are. They have a lot of proposals to plant significant number of trees along the stretch road there. They want to work with the town during that. It's an umbrella magnolia and a norimaple that they're proposing to remove. Sunset Ave is a project that's in the works for Sunset Ave, corner of Fearing Street and Sunset. We don't have a date set yet but they are moving forward with the project which will require the removal of two trees in front mostly due to a sewer line upgrade that needs to take place. Then on Kellogg Ave as I've discussed in the last meeting there are two oak trees there that I'm going to be taking down due to their condition. And there's another one which has been brought to my attention which we can discuss later that I may also need to take down. I had an assessment done by an independent consultant and it's up to me now really to kind of look at everything and determine whether or not this tree should remain or needs to come down. So I don't want to tie up the hearing process with that yet because if it is truly a risk tree and needs to be removed then there won't be hearing on its removal. So that's it for hearings. All right so should we schedule that hearing before the next meeting now? Yeah the site visit we should definitely schedule for folks. So the next the Shade Tree meeting will be March 8th so anytime before then where people could meet. The hearing I should say the hearing will be most likely five o'clock on just before the Shade Tree meeting. On the 8th? On March 8th? On March 8th. That'll be a Zoom hearing. My understanding it will be I don't think we'll have in-person meetings yet so but who knows. Okay well I'm on maternity leave still so my schedule is as flexible as napping but I'll let everyone else kind of weigh in for what days and times work for them. Can we do um that same day March 8th at say 4 30? That's like I leave people a lot of time to get back to their Zoom uh or four o'clock. It's easier for me if it's all scheduled in one day but that works for me. I think I can do that. I was having some problems with my speaker there for a second um what's going are we scheduling something? Yeah a site visit for the north common trees um and we're thinking March 8th at four which is before the hearing which would be at five on the same day. What day of the week is that? Tuesday. It's going to be all that's going to be right before our tree committee meeting so it'd be site visit tree hearing tree committee meeting. Okay I worked till five on Tuesdays so I will not be able to make it. Yeah I have a work meeting obligation so I won't be able to make it either. Is there a day during the week that either of you could make a? On Mondays and Fridays I get out at three uh on Thursdays I get out at 3 30. Tuesday and Wednesday I work till five. What's the day before work? Monday the 7th? Yeah that would work. Yeah that works for me. At what time? It has to be before dark but um what time works for you? Um 4 30? 5? At 4 30 work to get a little bit more daylight? Yeah I'm well like at five o'clock there's still daylight now so by then they'll definitely still be daylight but yeah five o'clock. Okay five o'clock on the 7th of March that's what we're looking at. Yeah that works for me. Is that for the site visit or the hearing? The site visit will be at five o'clock on Monday the 7th of March and then the hearing will be the next day at five o'clock on Tuesday March 8th and that's on Zoom at five. So we'll meet at the common on the 7th at 5 p.m. All right Alan you'll post that? Yes. Yes okay uh so next on the agenda we have the approval of the January minutes Aleb Stain from this one since I wasn't at that meeting. I just had one change it's to the final sentence um it said I was uh I think looking to expand the meadow at the museum it um I was looking to expand like program possibilities at the museum not physically expand the meadow. I think that was in reference with the pollinator um committee. Oh yeah that's an important distinction. So expand program possibilities for the meadow or? Sure yeah collaborative I was interested in doing some collaborative exploring collaborative opportunities for our meadow. Collaborating with Paul Paul and A. Amherst. Yep okay thank you. Any other changes or corrections right? Does someone want to um make a motion to approve the minutes then? I move to approve the minutes. Second. Great all right um and then next we have volunteer hours um Henry you can put me down for two. Well this meeting alone is two so so. Okay three. I was counting it was one. Okay I probably am up to 10 Bennett. About five. Julian. Four. Okay Helen. Three. Well we met um Sunday also three okay. Yep um Shashana. Um three I think. Okay Gina I didn't hear that Gina sorry. Two. Okay and Adrienne. Two. Two and did I miss anybody? Okay and uh we'll put uh Victoria who's on and um Sean for one each. So okay good. I'll mark that on the list and um next we've got committee reports. Um my chair report is pretty brief. I'm kind of getting back up to speed uh looking over everything that happened at the meeting last month um and starting to plan for the spring. Um one thing that I was thinking of for like kind of uh divvying up some of these uh task list items that we have uh would be to just give ourselves a little internal deadline um in particular uh like second Saturday plantings um coming up with ideas for that if we gave ourselves an internal deadline of something like everybody come up with one location for the next meeting something like that um it's just a way to give ourselves a little bit of accountability and kind of keep the steam rolling on on some of these topics that kind of get pushed back month to month to month. Um so that was just one idea I had for kind of making sure that we stay on top of these things and they don't all get kind of backburned um but I know a lot of people have been kind of taking up their own little projects and I think that's great. So um want to keep going with that and then just make sure that we're staying on top of everything else. Um Henry do you have anything that you want to add? Um yeah I did hear from two other volunteers uh Mickey Kleinman and Shahramar Miraj are probably not pronouncing it right but so they may show up at some meetings too besides the email I got from Sean. Um and then on April 30th the Greenfield Tree Committee is doing a planting day you know for um Arbor Day so I heard about that just letting you guys know and uh we'll be doing our plantings before then but we'll have something then too. Okay um speaking of volunteers um I do want to make sure that uh probably touch base with you Henry about any um volunteers interested in joining the tree committee and making sure we're moving those applications forward um getting before the town so that we can get new members on. Yeah actually um I had an interview and I will be coming back on the committee probably approved in April. Great that's excellent and there was nobody else um when Andrea dropped off running for a seat there's nobody right now who wants to be a a member but as more some of you are coming due this year so um you can renew or possibly to be new people by then nobody that's waiting to become a member. Okay yeah they're sending me more papers to be reappointed. Great okay um anything else Henry that you have for chair report that I missed from last month? Okay well no I'm good. All right um we'll move on to the tree wardens report Allen. Hi um yeah so not a lot going on obviously right now I think most of the things that are gonna be happening will be happening in a couple months um the uh just an update that the you know the Kellogg Ave sidewalk replacement project is is moving forward so it's gonna be a full current proposal is a full length of the road um well to the corner of uh where it takes that sharp turn replacement of those sidewalks and again we are working to you know absolutely minimize the impact of those trees I think we're going to be very successful um one of the trees um the first oak tree first large pin oak um off of north pleasant street as you turn on to Kellogg Ave on the right hand side which is right next to the Unitarian church um there was a researcher at UMass who did was doing some uh studying of the trees on Kellogg with some equipment that allows him to you know using essentially sound to determine how how uh solid the wood is in the tree like if there's possibly decay or something and um one that his his uh report he sent out was that there's actually a significant amount of decay in the lower stem of that tree mostly in the in the bottom four feet of the tree um the at the root flare the trees you know about 66 inches in diameter and it I found that rather shocking um that his his uh research had shown pretty clearly where the decay was in the tree um so I don't currently have technology to do similar type of of assessments of decay in trees and I really wanted to have an independent review of that of that extent of decay so I hired uh urban forestry solutions out of Pelham who has a uh machine called a resistograph it's 10 or $12,000 machine that allows you to um test the wood uh at you know a specific location in the tree to see where there's sound word and where there's decay and he handed back the report and which confirmed what the previous report had said that there is a significant amount of decay in the lower stem of that tree it's right on the threshold of allowable uh limits of decay to to sound wood in a tree based on this diameter um so I'm I'd really like to read through his report and kind of look at the tree overall and see if there's a way I can mitigate that risk by reducing the crown possibly so there's less chance of wind throw up there um and uh we're it's part of the process to do the sidewalks we're going to peel back all of the asphalt around the tree and that'll be an excellent opportunity for me to see you know the roots of the tree we can air spade around the root uh root flare and possibly determine better um you know the extent of decay in the tree as well so uh probably not going to really make my decision until we do that which won't happen until the ground thaws this spring but um you know it from the average passerby the tree looks beautiful it's healthy doesn't have you know any real obvious signs of decay in the crown um it is very large and its branches are very large it has had some crown reduction done in the past um and um it would be absolutely a shame to need to take that tree down at this point so it would it's like it's a cool tree I like that yeah is this the tree closest to north pleasant street yes I believe it had mushrooms growing at the base of it it is mushrooms growing around the base of it every year as does most of the trees um on calicab they all suffer they all have root decay most of the trees that size will have you know decay in it um and we have done risk we have done um wrist resistographs on just about all the trees on calicab about seven years ago eight years ago maybe um and it didn't really it picked up on decay of the trees but not that extensive decay in that particular tree um which means decay is advancing rapidly possible so um but I'll I'll keep you informed as we move forward with that process we did take down a dead very dead large sugar maple tree on kinder park today um you might hear some people discussing that um it was stone dead and that's significant decay in the stems there's no question from that one where was that Alan I didn't pick that up Kendrick park okay yeah there's a couple more uh dying dead trees on kinder park mostly maples that we will be removing um as well uh ones closer towards the north end of the on the north end of the park um uh tree warren's report what else um yeah so you know as we discuss the tree planting for the summer um we are going to be dipping into the tree fund this year replacement fund uh which is going to require more planning on my part because we have to vote to approve the funds for every purchase so essentially for every month um we'll need to plan a month in advance to vote on that a hearing um at a at a meeting not a hearing excuse me um to spend those funds unless we can come up with some other way of doing it but it seems like the right thing to do the month by month revoke to spend money or maybe we could do it for this maybe we could do like a two-month stretch for plantings or something like that but I'm not sure how the committee feels about that any thoughts I think two months would be fine um I that makes me think we need to plan ahead for our plantings more so than we did at least this previous year where we sometimes didn't know where we were planting um you know until week before right just a couple days um because the the type of tree and the number of trees is all going to be site dependent um so I think two is two months in advance would be fine um and we would just kind of put the pressure on the committee to kind of plan things out ahead a little bit more I also would be fine with uh approving a standing balance or like expense if we wanted to say this is the standard expense that we approve for every month's planting and then if there was something that went above and beyond that we could approve it especially for that planting and of course if it was less than our approved balance for the month then we have more money in the account um so if that's kind of an easier umbrella way to to capture a release of funds I would be fine with that as well that's an excellent idea um this does bring up the question of do we try to get a line item into the town budget or do we use our funds I mean we can use our funds certainly but at some point they're not going to last that long so we need to really figure out how to replenish them so yeah that's a good point Henry um maybe we'll have some updates when we get to that line item um or it's definitely something to to keep an eye on uh as we move forward through this year's planting does anyone else have opinions about how to approve the committee budget for tree plantings that sounds smart to me well I can um I can come up with a mount that um um you know we could probably look at spending per planting um and then the committee could vote on those numbers okay and that so that would be standing as a general monthly allowance from the tree committee account for plantings um so we wouldn't have to vote on it monthly but we could go above it if we approved it in a special vote that sounds like a good great yeah because I'm thinking about you know the planting um that we had um near UMass where we had just so many trees I forget how many trees we planted that time was it 22 yeah so you know there might be instances where we go above and beyond our usual budget um and that could just be a special case that we review independently all right sounds good so Alan you'll just give us an estimate of what you think a a tree planting general amount would be and that we can do a pre-approval yes I'll bring that to the next meeting great um is that it for the tree warrant report yes great thank you um julian uh the treasure report yes thank you so basically I double checked with the town clerk who said that the amount she gave me last time does not reflect the $100 donation um to be clear now uh this month I believe the $100 donation has been reflected giving us a total of twenty six thousand six hundred eighty seven dollars and twenty five cents great thank you julian can you is it twenty six six eighty seven and twenty five cents is that what you said uh twenty six six eighty seven and twenty five cents yes thank you did we find out who made the donation uh I did not ask no okay because we should send a thank you but uh if we don't know who it is then we can't do that so right in my previous experience as the treasurer um they are not able to on their account side of things see who made the donation that's what the town clerk told me a little while ago yeah the point um so if anybody knows who made it I think we have to identify them some other way yeah well next month I'll put it in the newsletter this person the suspect is this benevolent suspect is likely to be a subscriber I will put it in the newsletter though yeah thank you United that's great I like it great great thank you julian um so next we're moving on to our presentations and discussion we've touched on a bunch of these topics already so we'll just um you know move through and make sure we're kind of getting uh any new information um but we don't have to belabor the point if it's something we've already kind of covered um so first we have the north common and mary maple and this is reflective of our site visit um go ahead I have a question um the site visit and the tree hearing um are those going to be open to the general public to amherst residents and if so how do we let them know that they're happening the um the site visit generally is not an you know it's it's a it's a posted meeting um it's not really there for the general public to come and have a discussion it's really for you and for the committee and me to have a conversation around the trees um the public hearing is open to the public and people are welcome to come to that hearing um and you know ask questions and give their opinions how do uh how do they find out about it the tree itself any tree according to master in a law chapter seven that the healthy public shade tree is going to be removed will be posted for two consecutive weeks so the tree will have a posting on it saying that it's going to be removed and there's tree hearing where it is and what time it is um it also has to be posted in the paper and in a public place in town that is uh town hall thank you and um I generally post site visits um on the website so there's a section for that and uh certainly you can come major and we don't you know we don't want a hundred people coming but anyone who sees it on the website is welcome to come in my opinion and for uh the hearing itself on zoom I will post um a thing on the instagram story reflecting that that hearing is happening great thank you julian I know um the committee had discussed previously possibly doing some more you know public outreach regarding that um and I'm not sure if anybody's still interested in um starting sort of the public dialogue around it um or not I am but I'm not quite sure how to do that so is there anybody else who'd like to do that with me this we took this um uh I think that we discussed um drafting an op-ed about this and I volunteered to do that and I um I have it um so um uh Adrienne let's um first of all that's correct right that was that was kind of our main I think so I think we were going to I think Bennett you and I were going to try to connect to so we can go over what the plans are you can kind of get an idea what's likely happening um that's right yeah okay um okay so I will set that up and Adrienne um uh we um you and Allen and I can have that set up is that just a quick meeting Allen is it um would you yeah yeah we I could show you the plans as they are so far um I think the majority of it is kind of set that they're just making small changes to it essentially at this point yep so we can meet go over the plans and discuss in detail you know why the trees need to be removed and um what we're going to do in their place etc okay I will commit to setting that meeting up and Adrienne I'll loop you in so that three of us can meet okay thanks Bennett okay sure thing and um Adrienne had called me earlier and um she's concerned about not about trying to save that tree so um do you want to say anything more about that Adrienne or well I do understand the the situation Allen you've been very clear about it and I am just um I'm concerned about the sort of the fact that the Mary Maple is a sort of social icon in Amherst and at this time when we're trying to re-establish a center to our town in the common that it becomes a kind of icon not just of our past but of our future and um so that's one of the things that I'm still concerned about how we would address the social issue and the community issue of this tree not just um you know it's physical um problems that it's got and I would really like to be able to involve a few other people to get more opinions rather than just people saying oh I love that tree but we can't save it in other words um somewhere along the line I'm hoping that there could be a more public conversation about the focus that the Mary Maple has been in our community and how it has drawn us together through the seasons and the decades and um you know we may need to replace it but at least that particular aspect of it the socio structural design of the common rather than just the engineering design of it should be out in the public a little bit yeah I think um that's that's sort of I get that very similar you know feeling from a lot of people I talk to about the tree um people that approach me and talk about it and you know that it is you know it is a unique you know unique thing right it's really it's very immersed and it really is you know a community you know drives the community center of the town down downtown um I don't know how to answer that question you know you know it is it is a unique tree there aren't very many northern maples like that around um and you can't really replace it so you know how do we how do we have that dialogue around um the need uh to essentially say you were you know at some point in time in the not too distant future very close um the trees going to reach a point where it actually absolutely has to come down because it is structurally unsound um and there's a high target environment where too many people gather underneath it um so unless we isolate the tree and keep everybody away from it um then um something needs to be done either needs to have its crown drastically reduced so it's much smaller in size um balancing the leaf surface with all the mass of the tree is difficult when the tree is that old and on the leaf surface essentially is at the tips so there's not a lot to prune back to to keep the tree alive the um the you know it wasn't too long ago that the little merit the little maple in front of the merry maple was the merry maple so we're talking you know 10 or 12 years ago I can't remember how long it was um that used to be the merry maple it's still there it still has lights wrapped on it they don't turn them on anymore but that was the merry maple um so it's changed but I think most people remember you know this iconic large tree as the merry maple so it's you know it would be interesting to have an article that discussed both you know I don't want this to be a one-sided conversation you know around why the tree needs to come down it really needs to be like you said about the sense of community and what the tree means and and trying to um trying to preserve that sense of community which that part to me just just opinion um and I could be wrong about this that part the social the social impact of it seems to be beyond technically beyond the purview of the tree committee but doesn't mean that we can like I could imagine us team that conversation up and being a you know one of the leading contributors are like finding a way to engage to start that conversation and this you know this um an op-ed is certainly a way to do that because when it comes to you know there's you know you periodically hear people talking about the merry maple but when it comes from you know from the tree committee and we who say you know if if we were to write an article that said well you know for for reasons a b and c um this maple you know the maple tree is no longer you know it's it's time for us to have this hard conversation family and um and then that the broader and because I is that I mean because I think that celebration is is really a certainly hosted by the tree committee it's is it the bid is that who does that um are um I'm not sure I'm not sure what organization organizes that thing but um that seems like the the bid slash chamber in the years past you know it's a combined effort um yeah you know so yeah I would I would be very much in favor of besides an op-ed um some organization opening it up to a public forum and inviting you know as many people as were concerned to come celebrate the tree and talk about our relationship to it and if necessary do some of the grieving about losing it um and making it a community decision rather than the tree warden's decision um because it sort of belongs to everybody in a way it is a public change it is there there might be some opportunity around our per day when we're we have more of a public presence um to have something prepared to be able to have some of this conversation or some sort of handout flyer um or even a separate event Adrienne like what you're kind of talking about that that's more focused on the merry maple specifically but that the our our per day activities might be an opportunity to kind of start that conversation if um that fits within the timeline alan um and I was also thinking you know once we have an op-ed that uh we approve of um it might make sense to then do some sort of editing into a smaller synopsis or kind of bite-sized posts that we could then put on social media or the website that that offers you know more outreach around education you know I think it's important to kind of stay away from opinions about the merry maple and more to offer um facts right about about its condition and what's going on and then to give the space for people to have their own conversations as opposed to taking a stance necessarily as the tree committee but there's definitely an opportunity for doing some outreach on social media and then through our other programming and our day is the the biggest outreach that the tree committee does so that could be included there yeah the merry maple is on the new tree tour that Ellen and I are working on so even if it dies it'll still be on the tree tour for because you know anyway so that would be a that would be a fitting thing to include yeah I don't know the timeline yet for when that you know construction is going to begin and everything I don't I you know it may be after July 1st for all I know I don't have been told um but um I can get back to your timelines I should know that by the tree yarn um Sarah if I can interrupt for a second I just want to introduce Sharia is that how I pronounce your name uh yeah hi I'm sorry I was late um work grant work is actually still running but um yeah uh hi I'm new I guess I'm just kind of interested in learning about the stuff I'm a grad student at UMass um and uh I'm just here is the first time because I just I want to learn and yeah sorry yeah hello nice to to meet you we're happy to have you um if we could just have all the committee members run through a quick introduction just so that um Sharia is uh introduced to to us and a little bit familiar with uh how we run things so I'm Sarah I'm the um the chair of the committee I'm Henry we've corresponded um not officially a member of the committee I have the former chair and I was acting chair and I'm coming back on the committee so I'm Shoshona I've been on the committee for a couple years and I'm getting reappointed hi my name is Ellen and this is my first year on the committee I'm so sorry I have someone at my office um I'm really sorry um thanks for stopping by thank you I'll try to come back in but I'm sorry yeah feel free okay um so any anything else on the North Common plans or the Mary Maple before I move on to the next item all right um Adrienne I know you you asked for help with this but I do just want to say that um at the timeline I think is pretty fast approaching um so if we want to have space for a community conversation time is of the essence to to organize that and get the word out um so uh if anyone else is is interested in that sort of outreach I think we really have to do the push now or very soon so that we have time for that sort of that conversation to happen before um the tree has to you know work is being done on the tree um so not too much longer all right next line item uh Kendrick park and the north pleasant street road design um Alan you touched on this in your uh report um any other updates there are no updates the plants uh stands um no tree impact as far as tree removal or anything like that so this really just a road project at this point okay uh in that case we might move it to old items so it's something that we're kind of keeping our eye on but it looks like there's um no more impacted trees so I think we can retire this to the the back burner for now next we have Kellogg ab again Alan you touched on this is there anything else um that you want to say is that project moves forward uh nothing yet where um you know I just have to make a very tough decision um you know my current thoughts on the oak tree by the Unitarian uh church is that you know it's can stay um but I really won't know till we lift up the asphalt around the tree and see you know what the roots look like as well if um you're you're able to figure out the schedule when that's going to happen it'd be fun if you could alert the committee I think it'd be really insightful if we got a chance to kind of see um you know what an excavation like that on a tree that scale looks like and using the airspace and that sort of thing um so you know when you have that scheduled I if it's an appropriate sort of thing that the tree committee could at least come and kind of look you know from the the barriers um or or have a more arranged kind of site visit um I personally would be interested in seeing that excavation I think you know others on our committee would be too oh definitely yeah um I have a question about one of the trees on Kellogg sure one of those oak trees um about halfway down on the other side is chopped off at the top and it's doesn't have a lot of life to it but it's still pretty much alive and I'm wondering it doesn't seem like that would be a dangerous tree if we kept it despite the how it's disintegrating do you know which tree I'm talking about I know exactly which tree you're talking about it uh it actually failed so the whole top tree blew out in a windstorm um right and uh leave that tree to have a natural death in the meantime since it's not going to fall on anything right now or anything well my thought um around this is that the tree you know we're going to be redoing the sidewalks and there's an opportunity to kind of remove uh the whole tree uh so that we can do sidewalks properly and then try to get a tree planted on the backside uh on private property there the back edge of the sidewalk is the edge of the right away there so that's um my thought removing it I you know I thought about leaving it but you know the opportunity to um you know remove all the roots versus trying to grind a stump down in between a new sidewalk in the curve of the road um because it does go up into the the sidewalk so all right uh next up we have northampton road and no uh no updates on that one they'll start spring they'll start construction probably you know as soon as the frost leaves the ground and yeah benna go ahead um somewhere buried in your email um because it probably hit around the time you've had you have a lot going on now and you had more going on than uh is a draft of the um uh uh of the report that we would get the thing that we discussed um uh the end of last year um documenting the for the complete streets thing documenting how the impact on northampton road so um I don't think it's particularly urgent but I was also particularly interested in your thoughts on that too so when when and if you have a chance to look at that it's just a two-page document um let me know yes thank you benna I have not forgotten um and I I have it on my agenda for next month um so I can probably we can probably touch base before that um I'll get to it um and then uh we definitely have to keep our eye on it for how that project develops and we can include those updates um in subsequent uh drafts or addendums to that so thank you for for doing that draft I I have seen it come through my inbox yeah I totally get it thank you okay um next up we've got the library trees yeah so I um I found out about a meeting about the library construction project and I was not able to make it so I'm waiting to hear when the next meeting is they still don't have a real final plan for the landscaping and what might need to be removed from behind the library but I'll keep I'll keep up on that it did see a plan I think Henry that you sent that had some trees marked out to be removed um the plan was a bit confusing um did anyone anyone else see that or have any thoughts on that I did I did see that um really wasn't um they really give the information I think you needed um if we're talking about the same one the um you know it's not just the footprint of the physical building and what they propose to do for landscaping it's the actual you know they're they're going to be moving a ton of equipment demolition equipment we have to demolish the building first part is part of it um and uh these are going to be big machines they're going to be swinging all over the place they're going to be setting up on the ground um compacting soil and doing all kinds of things they're going to be moving they're going to need to make things flat so they can move the equipment around um you know so it's sort of the scope of work and uh developing a root zone protection program you know for those trees I you know I think again this is outside of my area I don't know anything about it's not responsible for it I don't know if they have an harvest on staff reviewing their plans or for how it's going so I don't even know the timeline for it okay so there's definitely a lot to find out about um that project and how it's moving forward if we want to weigh in at all or offer our opinions um yeah it's fairly urgent also so I'll keep up on that okay great thank you is there anyone else who's interested in that um someone was very passionate about the library trees does anyone remember it might have been Andrea it might have been Andrea yes okay it might be worth reaching out to her I assume she's on the email list um just if she's able to go to the meetings or at least garner some information and then be able to share with the tree committee so we have more available to us um okay I just realized I've been on mute this for I don't even know how long yeah I think I no wonder why nobody was responding to me um I'm interested in the library trees too oh great yeah thank you Shoshana I think just having more people available I know schedules are kind of hectic so if anyone's able to kind of catch those meetings um it'd be helpful to have a couple of people who are interested in following up okay so yeah and also Bennett um about the like when I thought I was not muted earlier I was trying to say that um I added you to that document about that of like all the pictures that I took did you did that work I've been on my phone my computer's still down and out so I've been doing all this stuff on my phone and my phone isn't as functional as my computer so did it work did I was I able to actually get you in that document that's entirely news to me um it could be that it was um like as in like I don't even think that I knew that anything happened on it um but I'll I'll just have to go back through google drive updates and maybe it's buried in there like I didn't get a notification that said anything had changed so okay yeah I done that but I don't know my computer should be better next week so it's at the computer hospital getting okay things will be better thank you all right uh next up we have the town tree tour Ellen and I met on Sunday and um we looked at the trees a little more found a few other options not necessarily to put in the official tree tour but things we can talk about as we're walking past and then we discovered that the Amherst College trees are all numbered and Ellen you are going to research um information about them from those numbers um yep I have an email already composed um but I wanted just to check in with Alan first if he knows a contact at Amherst College um who takes care of the landscaping and trees yes I do I can send that to you um the folks that work in the uh for the grounds division um I'm not sure if those are like research tags or if they're just inventory tags because they have a tree inventory you know I'm not um they look like an inventory tags yeah yeah they probably are um I am going to check in archives and special collections though in case there's any interesting historical facts about any of the trees or they were planted by an important person or in honor of somebody so so it's coming along I think it's going to be good great yeah keep us updated I'm looking forward to it okay next up we have second Saturday plantings um I think it would be I think it would be good if everyone could just take it upon themselves to come up with one location that is just an idea right it doesn't have to be successful we're definitely going to run it all by Alan and he's going to make the final decision on all these plantings but I think it would just kind of help um us plan out our year a little bit more if we had you know some idea of what our our plantings are going to be um does that seem manageable and reasonable for everyone if you just came up with one idea prior to March's meeting about where a tree location a location for tree plantings yes that's not asking too much I know everyone's got a ton on their plates and this for this is for everyone so I'd love you know like our usual volunteers you know anyone who cares about trees and you know moves around within Amherst we would just love to hear any ideas you have of places that could use um a little love from the shade tree committee um and the more ideas the better we don't you know expect that all of these locations will get planted so it would just be good to have a bucket to pick from yeah Bennett will this take place just as a discussion or is there some other I actually have a few ideas and is it should I just put them on a map and share with the group or we'll dedicate 30 minutes in our next meeting to discussing all the you know kind of projecting a map or yeah that'd be so much easier if we were in person you know we just pointed a map yeah like if I'm like you know that place beside the bank that's no that kind of stuff could go for a while uh yeah I think having a map would be great and we can just put aside time so if you know if we if everyone agrees that March is a reasonable time to do it we definitely want to kind of get a jumpstart on it before we start having plantings um then yeah I'll just bring up a map during our meeting and we can have people kind of right on you can use the annotate option in zoom so people can you know kind of draw in where they're thinking and then we'll just have it all in our notes for that meeting so everyone can kind of refer back and we can pick from there as we move forward okay so I'm excited that you have a couple in mind already Bennett that's great and if everyone could try to have at least one we'll just make sure we have time in our schedule for going over those ideas in March I also have a few things in mind for that one question is are there any more of those basins left downtown for tree plantings um where trees have died or haven't been planted or are all of those building trees there are still a couple there's another tree over by uh Antonio said I'm going to have to take down so we'll have another another one there I think there's two locations currently there there are several I know okay that's just an idea thanks this is an aside but starting in April we will probably be required to meet in person so in terms of what Bennett you were saying um so a little bit of a tree committee homework for everyone please come with an idea um and we'll just I'll make sure we have time in our schedule to uh devote um a little bit of a mapping exercise where we can kind of plan out what um what we're thinking for this coming planting season all right next up Arbor Day Prep this is kind of all encompassing uh with a bunch of other things making sure that we're kind of ready Arbor Day is our biggest community outreach event in the year um so we wanted to have updates to the website so that when we give our website information out that the website has been updated appropriately um we wanted to update our flyers and handouts tabling display um so those things are kind of coming up underneath uh which we can talk specifically about them but this is just kind of an umbrella idea to give us a deadline for some of those kind of uh long-term goals for the the committee and outreach for that um and then Alan do you have any other updates about Arbor Day? Yeah so I mean we still haven't heard this kind of it's going to be our other bullet item the I have not heard back yet I have I didn't leave a message with them from uh DCR regarding our grants um you know and you know we I did reach out to somebody to be a speaker at an Arbor Day event and you know we're kind of getting down to the wire where I really need to commit of his you know for him to come and talk but I can't do that until we actually get approval for the grant if we want to get reimbursed um so yeah and then there's a lot of uh you know work around that potential Arbor Day type activity which is dual purpose but we'd also sort of focus on the um this large sycamore tree at the Amherst History Museum you know and you know how we how we go about promoting Arbor Day to include that tree or not so if we don't get the grant then we don't necessarily need to focus on that tree as much as part of the match um we should probably pick a date or a tentative date for when we're going to celebrate Arbor Day I think Arbor Day is on a Friday so maybe last Friday in April yeah maybe the day after that that Saturday is when we do the tree tour and do any public events or we could do it Friday but Friday I'm sorry is that the 30th Saturday is the 30th yeah yeah we usually have a booth at the farmers market uh Henry um I'm away that weekend I'm just seeing here if you're doing the tree tour that that day um I mean obviously you can do it without me but I feel bad that I wouldn't be there well that doesn't have to be the date it's just okay sort of our idea that we were working toward was to have it then are you away Friday evening or do you have the whole weekend yeah that that whole weekend so we'll do it in different ways what if we use that weekend that we're there at the farmers market to promote the tree tour for the next weekend yeah like that could work we probably should get a date um if we're gonna have a farmers market booth we have to reach out to them and uh and reserve that I really enjoyed that last year and I think um you know a lot of people stop by I think it's great outreach if we want to do it again I say that knowing I'm not gonna be there to help um yeah well I think we have it I mean I think we've had it every year that I've know about the tree committee that's how I actually think I first heard of the tree committee even do you want to contact the farmers market yeah I agree that's a great outreach opportunity and it was also a lot of fun so yeah yeah the weather was perfect that day so it was really nice to have dueling tables you have one at the farmers market and then you could also do something at the merry maple um where the table there to collect collect information people's stories about the tree merry maple or something yeah an oral history project would be fun yeah I'm thinking is this a sustainability festival thing like does that exist doesn't for the past couple years I don't know if they're doing it this year I haven't heard okay um but I think it's a great idea to do something for the merry maple then um that's a that's a good opportunity um and there's always a pretty decent turnout for the farmers market so that's a good outreach um opportunity and a way to kind of engage the community like we were talking about all right um anything else for arbor day all right moving on uh new committee members we touched on this briefly already Henry um you said there's there's no one no current applications in um I encourage any of our new volunteers who are sitting in on this meeting if you're interested um you know submit an application we would love to have you um and if anyone knows anyone else who's interested in the shade tree community we're definitely looking for members so uh that'd be great next up we have the tree inventory I'm giving up data that the um again I haven't heard whether we've gotten the grant yet or not for that so if they don't if we don't get a grant um I did give I gave a presentation last week to the UMass class there was a student there um who lives in the area uh older student who actually might you know potentially become an intern for the town um and he would be a good person actually to to do tree inventory work um so if we don't get the grant then I may actually have a intern potential paid intern potential um to help with the tree inventory so that's great um it's nice that we might have the opportunity to move that project forward even if we don't get the grant um okay so we'll just kind of stay updated on that for now um social media update uh Julian how's it been going good so we've been getting a good amount of traction on the instagram page I haven't posted in a while but um I will post about the merry maple and hopefully get some traction on both folks attending that hearing um on zoom and also just maybe foster we want to foster a community discussion around that we could also foster sort of an online community discussion where we say where we present the facts in a post um and then allow people to drop their concerns in the comment or on a private thread to the committee's instagram where uh we can share those questions and comments with you all and respond to that great yeah I think keeping it pretty relaxed right like not taking too much of a stance one way or another um and just giving people the opportunity to have a discussion about it is the way to go for now um we could link the op-ed to it and just say like this is the situation with the tree these are some quotes um from the tree warden about this situation and health of the tree and then allow people to put their opinions in the chat features yeah I think linking the op-ed is a good idea um it might also be a good idea to have even a standardized post that you can just recycle alerting people to our meetings um something that's just like don't forget we have a public meeting you know Tuesday 5 30 in that way even if it's the same one that you kind of recycle or you just update the date or something like that um just because we're trying to get new members so anyway that we can get a little bit of outreach um and get some more volunteers interested would be great perfect um Julian I wonder if um I just worry about bad you know getting a bad argument going um but I wonder if you could use the social media posts to encourage people to share memories and yeah you know special things and um you know things that Adrienne was talking about um yeah I think just not going so much into the fact about why the tree is coming down and you know like I mean hopefully with the op-ed that will help but um you know spin it more positively at you know we don't we're not here to defend it but we just want to hear your great memories or share photos all that yeah yeah good idea thank you yeah um Shashana I posted today saying we had the meeting but can you put that on your list to do that every month you post on Facebook that we're having our meetings sure great and uh Shashana how otherwise is Facebook going um you know I post things here and there I think the last thing I posted I shared a thing that the UMass forestry department had about a work a free workshop about um pests on trees that they were doing uh great um that we could also uh whatever you know a similar to the the Instagram we could put something up for the tree hearing um on the Facebook as well okay um next up we have the budget line item for getting some funding no uh no update on that I don't believe it moved forward through the process I haven't heard backward any of our budget stuff so yeah I think for any movement to happen it's going to have to come through a groundswell of interest so you know let us the editor trying to make people aware you know the town doesn't provide any money every month or every year to uh plant new trees what do you think about that you know and try to get some some interest in in this thing before before it'll pass through uh the town council and the town manager there's a lot of good information on the annual town report that shows you know budgets um that might be useful to resource what report the annual town report it's posted on the town website okay um if anyone does end up writing a letter to the editor or anything like that um it would be great to link it to our social media accounts um or have some sort of summary that we can post on the social media accounts as well just so we get uh a little bit more broadcasting with that um so we can revisit if nobody's volunteering to do that at this time um it might be something for next year's budget if we've already um aren't getting approved for this year is there something notable about this and that are we out of is Amherst out of step and that we don't have such a line item or do we not even know so for example it's a lot easier to write a letter that says you know in Northampton they get blah blah blah from you know every year for trees and here in sad Amherst we don't get anything um you know is there I have no idea um this is a rhetorical device makes it easier to make the case I'm sure that information is public somewhere I can say that Northampton definitely has a better tree planting budget than Amherst does Amherst has many other field we need correct I'm sorry Henry I couldn't there are two people talking something yeah Amherst has no current tree budget tree planting budget correct if I want to buy trees it comes out of my operating budget I don't have a line item for trees my operating budget is $170,000 a year to to do everything that we do um and it's been pretty much the same for the last 10 years so it's gone up you know by about a thousand dollars or so but we've had we've been level funded for you know 10 years so that's kind of that is that budget including all the employee expenses that does not include employees expenses okay what it means what it takes what I have to spend to keep things going and do what we do right and the cost of tree care has gone up dramatically in terms of pruning and all that stuff I think yeah I mean the cost of buying a tree uh when we started the tree planting program you know I could get it an inch and a half two inch caliber tree for about $89 they're now you know close to $200 for the same tree so seems I wonder if we'd have more luck trying to help your budget as opposed to getting a line item I know um I'm on the public art commission for the town too and we and we have zero budget as Shoshana knows so I mean I I couldn't believe how much money this committee has when I came on board I know it's all relative but yeah I mean you know town prioritizes its budget and again if I encourage the committee members to look at the town report and see where the money is spent and that's you know the decision that's been made through multiple town managers and it's you know changing of government and we're we're at the same place I'm not saying that we you know we're very very fortunate and that the town did invest heavily in replacing equipment and and things like that so we are you know blessed in many ways unlike many municipalities you know in the western part of the state but Emerson is not like most municipalities in the western part of the state we're more like an eastern community um and uh I you know I see what those communities have many of them a similar size and we're you know we prioritize other areas and that's if that's what they want to do that's what they want to do right so like at least when they're considering the annual town budget maybe to have some of our committee members talk about increasing funding for uh Allen's department and what they do there for so that Allen can put that into tree planting might be something to consider I think that's great to do I think um excuse me we also a tree line item by a tree line item in the budget would really say something and I think would be important except from Allen's budget I mean you know I just want to add you know the town did fund a lot of money to plant 2000 trees and it did do a lot of tree planting and it did a lot of other things too that benefited the town and the trees um it made our program more efficient you know but you know that was a one-time deal that we really you know we're hoping that would lead to a more sustainable tree planting program in the town so we we did this big planting to get kind of to make up for those 20 years where we really weren't planting any trees at all and now we've we've we've spent that money and we need to find you know a way to continue planting trees or it just won't happen it's more like an op-ed than a letter to the editor but I only got one in me right now we got to work on the merry maple that's speaking only for myself because every point you've made is it's really compelling and and there maybe I don't know maybe I'll I'll I'll um I'll take a stab at an unsigned letter to the editor that either could come from one of us or could come from somebody we know who isn't on the tree committee um just as a start just to kind of get that conversation going I would be willing to work on that as well and I appreciate um Allen and everyone else for bringing up that point which I think was really good work I just I'll just want to add that you know I think you know I think the committee is you know respected in town and um you know the work the committee does statutory committee does the work that the climate action committee is doing you know these you know it's all connected and you know um there's you know publicly stating that tree committee you know feels that there should be more tree planting and associated with all those benefits that the public tree trees provide um it's a good thing you know I don't want I don't feel that uh you've got a anonymous we anonymous you know senders but uh oh no that's not that I would I just I'll write it and then we'll figure out who who wants to put their name on it that's not that's not some spooky it could come from the committee we the undersigned yeah happy to draft a letter also um to Henry's point having you know a a well of support um for this is makes it more likely to pass I'm happy to to write a personal letter as well um I can't guarantee the timeline on that right now for my own schedule but um I'll definitely put it on my own personal to-do list to to write a letter of support for that all right uh next up we have the tabling display and handouts um and then also the website update um and these are two things that we were kind of hoping to have done for the for arbor day um yeah I've got I've got that pamphlet saved in our google drive that I could print more of and working on the display but are there other things that we would want to have like from somewhere else that we would want to put on the table like like sometimes we have like those tree identification books or like you know temporary tattoos of asian longhorns beetles or whatnot where do those come from and how do we get more I can get more of those that's done from yeah some of that stuff came from the state so Alan if you can get it that's great what about the um display rack Shoshana yeah I'm working on that it's totally happening um it is in it is in hand and I volunteered to make a a big sign for the table so everybody knows who we are um so Shoshana do you have a high res um file for our logo um I might in my computer um but that's still in the computer hospital so I'll check when I get and or it might be in our google drive okay it probably is in our google drive too okay but I think I'll send you an email from my um google account so you can link me to that okay thank you uh on the website um I'm sorry I don't have anything to report um I know that we need to get it done by the end of April uh I will not have any time to work on this before March but in March I can't work on it with the goal of having it having copy done by the end of March which gives us a month to update the site which is very rough but um that's that's what I can offer I hope that hope that's hope that works yeah I appreciate it Bennett you've got a lot on your plate um and March sounds good um I wish I could offer more help but my schedule is hectic um but if you if you feel that you need to outsource or delegate a little bit um you know just just let us know and we can uh try to see if there's a way to kind of break pieces of the of the out um to make the burden uh you know less of a lift for you I think it's more about reviews than the you know it's not like a writing a 20 page website um it's more like does this look good but needs to be changed that kind of stuff so just um yeah that's and it is is this the it's our page on the town site yeah yeah yep it's been talking forever about changing it up and doing something different and I've had conversations with the town person who manages that stuff for the town and um uh yeah so it needs to move to action all right um it we can decide on our March meeting but there might be an opportunity to meet anyone who's available and interested in March after our meeting before arbor day um yeah so you know after our meeting in March we can decide the March meeting if anyone's interested um it might be helpful to have a review session I think it would take up a lot of time in our meeting agenda if we were to do it but just having a couple of people who can spend an hour or so um and spend it you can screen share and we can just kind of do a little bit of review as a group um and I you know I think it's good to kind of uh spread out that as well you know get get some different opinions and stuff um so we can decide day if anyone's interested for that at our March meeting on the 8th but just to put it out there if we're able to meet sometime in March or April to review the website prior to launch that would be great thank you that's great I agree all right um and last up we've got complete streets and state level initiatives I think that's the line I think that's what I spoke to earlier um if there's something beyond that I don't know but the the the two major impact of complete streets in Northampton Road yeah that's what we spoke about earlier yeah we're definitely trying to gather case studies like Northampton Road to kind of bolster our our case for um complete streets at the state level to include trees more in their legislation um I think if we can have a couple other case studies you know there's a lot of work to be done here to really put together um a compelling argument with a different case studies um scientific studies uh you know that that sort of thing to really make a an argument um for state level policy change um has anyone been in touch with our legislators Henry I haven't been lately I was about a month or so ago I reported that last month but um another thing that's been on my mind to do and I haven't done and I promise to do it by our next meeting is to contact the Northampton Tree Committee and maybe other committees you know because this is statewide so we really should get allies in the other tree committees so I would contact them yeah great well next up we've got our old items so things we're just keeping an eye on the significant tree ordinance um is still tabled for now um unless someone else is ready to champion that I'm gonna it's on the back burner until I'm got a bit more of a regular schedule um and uh the Amherst History Museum grant we are still waiting to hear back whether that grant's been awarded all right um committee comments anyone have anything to say or that we didn't didn't get to in the the line items for the agenda I thought of one question um that was when they did the survey for one of the trees on Kellong Ave next to Uniterpitarian Church was it considered going further down the street to think about um like what other trees might be in decay so to speak um or might be struggling or can we tell that without um without getting that type of survey that's a great question um he actually did he did do the similar test on all the trees on Kellong Ave all the big oak trees that line the street so I have that information this was the only one you know that showed decay this extensive and again this is only showing decay at the point that they do the test so you know six feet up it could be a totally different story but he's just testing where you generally find decay you know in large oak trees so thank you and this is a separate item but um I was interviewed by the reminder which is the new sort of weekly paper in Amherst and um it was printed I didn't see it in the paper but I contacted him today and um I saw the the online copy I'll send that around to everybody so I wasn't the quotes are not exactly accurate of what I said but they're reasonably good so if there's nothing else we will adjourn the meeting thank you everybody all right thank you have a good night yeah nice job Sarah thanks Henry yeah bye bye