 Hey Shoshana. Hello again. Hello. I cooked dinner while we had the right break, that was good. That was quick. I have guests so I had prepped the stuff beforehand so. Yeah. Okay, those participants. We'll get started pretty soon, waiting for a couple more people. Bennett you'll take notes again. Sure. Great, thanks. All right. We'll get started. I think Sarah will be here soon, but Shoshana, are you here? Yes. Great. Okay. Well, welcome to another monthly meeting of the shade tree committee. Dorothy, thanks for joining us again. Let's start off with a few business things and we'll jump into that. Julian, do you have the agenda. I can share your screen. I'll make you a. Yeah, sure. Sometimes it shows up quite strange, but I will try. I can't make you another host so. Alan, can you do that? Yes. I don't know about you guys. I have the agenda up, but I prefer not to have it fill the screen because then I can't see you guys. I would rather have this, but it's up to everybody. That's perfectly fine with me. All right, Dorothy, do you need the agenda at all? No, actually, I glanced at it in the notice. And I'll just follow along. That's fine. I'll just keep popping into it to see what's on the agenda for myself. And then I will. So the first thing is. Any announcements or public comments. Dorothy, you could talk now or you could talk. Right. I don't have too much to say, but I did send in a letter. Actually. I did forward it on to Bennett, but I didn't forward it to you. And I've been kind of very rushed trying to catch up with myself this week. And just clearing the papers off my desk and find I found out I didn't do a couple of things I should have done. So it's been crowded, but I sent an email to Paul. And with but is also to show mangano and to Andy Steinberg. And just to ask, get it clarified, because you would, you'd wanted to have a dedicated budget line. And I wanted to know when that comes in in the process of putting together the town budget. Let them know that I totally supported such a budget line. And I want to know about the timing in the process. And I then got back a email from Sean. We have expanded a recurring line item in the preliminary capital improvement program to include tree planting. The line previously called tree removal is now called tree planting and removal. It has $20,000 proposed for FY 24 at this moment. This plan will come to the council on May 1st. And then in an answer that I don't have right in front of me right now. I suggested that the line be increased because I didn't know what it was before. Okay, but I said, you still have the word removal in there. So. We, it might need to be bigger. So that's basically what I did. So I don't know whether that was, I mean, obviously you guys have done a good job because they had already put this in. Or had we're planning on it, but I believe you were asking for 40,000 or. Yeah. So I don't know whether that can happen or not. But anyway, it's, it's, it's some kind of a move forward. And I guess that the question is, what do we, what should we do now? To follow through. A question. Thank you for doing that. And I did Bennett sent me the info. So. To speed on that. Also, I did do that. And I appreciated that suddenly there was a flurry on Monday morning. There was a flurry of emails about this topic. Which I greatly appreciated. I didn't respond because I wasn't sure yet how we as a committee. Respond. So. Wanted to let Henry know that my, my question is kind of the same as yours. Dorothy, you've got to. Got there faster than I think I was going to get there, but. The. What it, and maybe it's a, it feels like it's maybe an Allen question, like. With removal being in there. Could that just eat a lot? That whole. Line item alive on its own or is it. Give us some sense of like how useful this is or isn't. So the word. Here's about, is the word expanded. So what was the line for tree removal before. So the, the true rule has come and gone. It's, you know, it's, it's been in there and there are years when it's not funded. And there are years when it's funded. And it's, it's been 20,000. It's been 40,000. So I mean, my interpretation of that is it's great that I can use those funds for tree planting as well as tree removal. And it would be up to me to determine. You know, how much. Money we would need to spend on hiring a contractor to tree removal. So, you know, the Mary Maple removal was paid. Was done by a contractor. So there are situations around town where it just makes more sense. Right. Because of equipment that the contractor can do it much faster. And we get a lot of other things done. So. I, you know, I've been wanting to increase the tree removal. Kind of line items so that we could go more into maybe some. Bigger contractor projects where you can get a contractor into like. You know, do all of one street. So you come in and. Prune and do things all on one street at a time. And I can say, you know, do all of one street. So you come in and prune and do things all on one street at a time. And I can start chipping away at. Back log of maintenance, not just removals. Right, right. So, you know, it's a good thing that they're talking about it and that they're thinking about tree planting as well as tree removal. Yeah, but the, the issue is then to try to get this. Increased. I'm sure there's, there's random money floating around now. So I can see getting more money on a one-time basis is a lot easier than getting it to a dedicated line. Getting capital budgets tend to be easier than getting operating budgets, even if it's reoccurring capital. I think last year. The budget for tree removal was 40,000, I believe. Correct me if I'm wrong. Yeah. And basically what I'm wondering is say it's 40,000 again this year, and it's made to be planting and removal. Will all of that end up being spent on removal because that's the true cost of tree removal. Or will some of it end up being able to be spent on planting or is it going to end up being spent on tree removal. So I think that our removal is just too expensive for that. And we should instead ask for 60,000 for plantings and removal. So. I could respond to that. So it would be up to me to say, you know, I want. You know, X number of dollars for planting, you know, this year. And I would hold that money aside for planting out of that line item. And use the rest for removals. I think it would be money for all of the tree plantings that we want to do on second Saturday, plus whatever other tree planting needs we have around. Like the North North Amherst Common. Project or something. But what I'm concerned about is that you've talked a lot, I think about Norway maples. And that we have a lot of them. And I see tree removal as being a big item in the future. I mean, don't you. I mean, we have a lot of things going on. We have, you know, emerald ash borer in town. We have, we now have the beach leaf disease in town. You know, sugar maples, maples are just having a hard time right now because of drought. So our removals are going to pick up because our age class of the trees of our tree canopy is also pretty old because we had such a long period of not planting trees. So we have an uneven age class in town. So I don't see, you know, removals reducing. To answer your question. So you go ahead, Henry. Yeah, I mean, I think, I think. I trust you Alan as tree wouldn't set aside money for tree planting and everything and encouraging tree planting. You know, in the future, though, beyond you, you know, I would like to see it as a separate line item really. Yeah, I think that would be best for us. And then we were clear where we stand, you know, year after year. And I mean, I don't want to see Alan put in a position where, or any tree warden in the future, where basically they have to choose between allocating this money for planting and allocating this money for removals. I mean, you would basically like, if say a lot of sugar maples are a safety threat and need to come down one year, then we don't get a whole lot of planting. Or the other way around. So I guess I just worry that regardless of. How skilled and really amazing Alan is at his job. We might as a town be forced into a situation where we have to dedicate all of that money to removals one year. Okay, I would also like to work towards having them be separate line items in the budget. I think because removals tend to be labor. The, you know, companies that do big removals have the equipment and I'm sure they carry costs for that, but really what we're paying for as a town is the labor of the removal and with tree planting, we do the planting ourselves. So there really isn't a labor cost is just materials. And those rates are going to change differently. So if we have the two line items as separate in the town budget, we'll be able to adjust for changes in cost of those things independently of each other. You know, we might not see huge increases in plant material from year to year. Because, and we're doing a lot of volunteer labor, whereas there might be labored, you know, jumps and spikes and labor or vice versa. So I think ultimately moving towards separating them is a good move. I think it's a good move. I think it's a good move as we move forward as a town, because we're not sure how things are going to change in the future. So in terms of moving forward, I think, are we all in agreement that we want it to be a separate line item? Yeah. Okay. So in terms of moving forward, what do we need to do? Do we need to. Approach the whole town council together? Are you going to continue to push this through with town council? I certainly will, but I think it's more effective to have some people from the committee doing it. And then I could, you know, definitely. I mean, everybody's for trees. Okay. I don't think anyone's going to say I'm not for planting trees, but they're going to say we have such calls upon us. I mean, right now we're in a season of discontent. We're getting letters talking about the condition of the roads. People fussing about this, the sidewalk thing about street lighting, the cost of that. We're coming up to the school vote. So it's a very kind of delicate time right now. People are, some people are getting worried about the cost of the library. So, you know, we've got all this stuff. The feeling is that we're just money, money, money. And then we're going to try to be told to be reasonable. And, you know, at some point when it comes down to planting trees, I don't think you can be reasonable. It has to be done. And we have to keep doing it to renew it. So. We, I think we need your committee. And of course, Alan, I mean, to, to speak about it. And make a passionate case. But I definitely will do whatever I can on the town council. And let me know what you want me to do and how you want me to do it. But there's just an awful lot going on right now. Yeah. Yeah. And I guess I would say like. Some of our town departments. In some capital requests. Might not. Consider this, but like, we really try to do our tree plantings in the most cost effective way possible. We use the labor of volunteers. We get our trees from Amherst nurseries. Sometimes they're voluntarily given as a donation from Hadley garden center or Amherst college. So we really do aim to make our tree plantings as cost effective as absolutely possible. And I would, I don't think that is true of all the capital requests that come in to the council. And it would be worth highlighting that. If that question is asked. But it's also that you'll, because you do it that way. I mean, this relates to one of our fights that we're having right now about public comment. And the legal, just getting out of the emotional things, the legal women voters comment is that public comment is a way for people to have buy-in into the town decisions and to feel that they're part of it. And by your using volunteer labor and getting trees from local people, you are creating something where people feel very close to the government and that it's that they, they should be feeling very involved. This is good stuff. This is the way we should be going. And it's, you know, it's the same thing that we need. So. Right now, everybody's telling you that we need to put our money somewhere else. That's what they're telling. It's just, just have to stand very firm on this as to why this is an essential thing to do with Amherst and not to do it would be very destructive of Amherst, its history and its ideas, I guess. Yeah. And we have, I mean, the other thing is it builds community. It builds community for the neighborhood. We had the homeowners or tenants association involved at the boulders in a tree planting there. It really does build community. And it also like someone's, people might only have negative experience with experiences with town government until they meet Alan or one of his crew members. And get a tree in their front yard. Yes, it does. I mean, when you planted, there was somebody on Lincoln, upper Lincoln that got two trees. Maybe three. And she was just over the top, over the top, because there was a huge lawn that had been somehow trees had been killed or died or something like that. And it was feeling very desolate. And that was just in the last year and a half, I think, but maybe it was before COVID. It's all a blur. Time is all a blur, but ethyl, I don't know if you remember ethyl. And she was so happy about that. So it made a lot of difference. I'll write a letter to the Gazette. I think it would be a good thing. Yeah. I can probably get that done pretty soon. Do you know, did you find out when the deadline is when they're going to have to make a decision about this? So it's going to come to the council on May 1st. Okay. The chances of the council voting to increase it on their own is small. But I think it's going to be a good thing. I think it's going to be a good thing. But I think the things only will happen like that. If there is a big, big letter writing thing. And we're getting a lot of, as I say, negative unhappy letters. So if these could be happy positive letters. It would stand out from some of what's going on. I mean, but we're, there's a lot of communicating going on in town right now about what's going on. So. I mean, I think it's going to be a good thing. I think it's going to be a good thing. So. Is there any interest in like a day or two in advance of that council meeting and have any, anyone interested in sending them in. I think not a day or two. As soon as possible. Yeah. It's May. There's time before May 1st. Oh, So. You know, middle of April on, I guess. And it's spring. I mean, you know, this morning when the snow first fell I looked at one of my dogwood trees and it was absolutely beautiful in the snow and then it began thinking about you know spring and trees and whatever and so it's a great time to to get people excited and happy about it and not to be negative about tree removal but we know that branches fall and they fall on people and on cars and whatever and you know but the tree we have to have good housekeeping just you know you can't keep removing without adding and that kind of stuff but you guys would know how to write the letters and to tell your friends how to write the letters and that could I'll write a letter I think Bennett if in the next newsletter which will come out the beginning of April if you have maybe even lead off with you know we're trying to do this town line item budget line item and encourage people to write to Paul to the town council things like that I can write a letter in mid April that time frame yeah great and Bennett didn't you write a letter already to the Gazette a while back don't you have a format we could all kind of follow or somewhere in my very organized files I do because I did do that I do feel like you drafted something a while back oh it got in the paper yeah and so what I'm thinking is we should probably have a special issue of the newsletter go out that's about one thing and it's about that and that only that's my thought to get people's attention my experience about letter writing campaigns is that everybody needs to have the facts but every letter should be different and your letter should reflect some personal story you have personal feeling you have in connection to a tree some trees Amherst trees or whatever so that it's not because we get when we get the letters and it's like a formula it doesn't have the same effect it just doesn't have one I think that's an excellent advice I just want to read Bennett's original letter so that I've got some of the language and things in my head but yes I agree do you think a letter writing event would be attended do you think like we'd have success getting people to like actually go like maybe to the library one day if we you know had Pi or something I don't know it's an interesting idea I don't know people would come and maybe Pi is involved certainly some people would show up I just have Pi on my mind because there's a I can tell you this is a Pi led strategy today there's something about today being it is Pi Day it's 314 so I'm not encouraging us from doing a letter writing Pi eating event but maybe we couple it with some of the events we do at the first arbor month you know we'll have a we'll have a booth at the sustainability fair and we'll be doing some other events and if we have some sort of thing we can pass out with the facts and ask people to write letters then oh yeah yeah yeah at our booth at the uh at the fucking thing yeah when we're giving away the trees yeah maybe like some sort of thing that actually has like you know like an address to send it to so it's just like all they need to do is like write a little personal note and then send it in or maybe write something right there and we collect it right there like you know that mailbox thing was very successful maybe if we you know had something similar like you remember the mailbox thing with the the very maple well um then if you can find the letter you wrote and then ellen if you could write up a cheat sheet that we can give out to people based on that saying please write a letter here are the facts you know make it personal okay that sound good mm-hmm um and we can decide later whether we want them to go out uh individually or all as one packet and and should we include all the town councilors um email addresses and paul bachleman's email address on that so people know where to send it there's a way to do just to town council that'll go to everybody okay but my my question is just to be sure what your um the overall message number one is we I guess we're supposed to be thankful that there is a dedicated line because you did not have a dedicated line is that correct yes but it was just whatever okay but that um then are you including the request that it be increased or um or maybe uh you're going to have a meeting and decide what your official position is I think so but I think we're leaning toward we wanted to be a separate dedicated line item separate from the true removal line and then whatever they put in is already an increase because we don't have that at all right now so um right you know our target is 40 000 but whatever okay yeah does that make sense people yep okay all right good well thank you so much for coming to the meeting and uh you're welcome to continue with us uh well if I'm not needed it is my birthday today so I'm gonna happy birthday happy birthday go have some pie you beat me to it yeah I hadn't really thought about that okay so bye bye nice to see you okay so nice to have her join us and yeah advocate for us so let me just uh all right so let me collect hours um I did about eight Bennett um I would say five includes this meeting and the other two me oh sorry yeah um oh for the other two me so sure give me give me eight okay Ellen um since our last meeting I would say um four four okay Julian uh probably six or seven okay Shoshana one one all right including this meeting I think so yeah like so I don't anything Sarah she's honest too okay all right good um and can we approve the February minutes did you have some changes to them Henry or it all looked good I made some cosmetic changes um yeah you did I believe I looked over them yeah and but mostly I just um highlighted some things in red and adjusted the um the list of who is there I keep visitors separate from the people that are on the committee so okay yeah I don't think I did anything else so all in favor of approving the minutes thumbs up okay minutes approved good and next on the agenda is the chair's report um I got a check for 25 dollars from uh Nia and Andrew Canard um so I got to put that into the gift tree fund Alan how do I do that uh you can send it to me at dpw and we will enter it in through dpw into the gift okay does anyone on the committee need to do anything oh and then um Sarah are you still the treasurer yes can you send a um I'll send you the address you send do you have the cards the thank you cards no no with Shoshana do you have them what do I still have them I guess um I thought I gave them to somebody but I don't know I'll check and like if I have them all I'll uh fill one out okay when you check and let me know I might have them here um okay so I'll I'll get I'll make sure someone has a card and someone will write the letter okay all right uh that was nice to see a little donation came in the mail surprise um what else oh um I've been requested by Amber from the town Amber Taylor to shrink the agenda so I'm not putting as many details in it anymore so you might notice there were fewer details but um it's still all there we can talk about everything I just can't put as much on the on the agenda it doesn't fit um and that's about it it's great that um that she showed up we've got some other business to do so I'll keep my report short and move on to Julian do you have a assistant chair's report uh no I just wanted to mention that there is a uh tree wardens and foresters brunch meeting this Thursday I believe um dinner dinner yes um thank you that I will be attending um and anyone from the committee is welcome to attend as well I believe great um Alan tree wardens report oh I can just add to Julian's that the if you've been following acorn to Arabella which is a uh a small group in Granby that is building a wooden boat from scratch uh using a lot of local timber um they're going to be presenting at that uh dinner meeting and then the second presentation is going to be about the new wood heat so using this new high efficiency kind of wood stove heating boilers for um mostly using wood chips so for your municipality or private company or even a house and you want to heat your house with sustainable wood chips then um this technology is pretty cool and there's a lot of state incentives to do it too so and then the um mass forestry alliance is also going to be presenting it's a group that um works with landowners who own forest lands and um foresters and wood producers to um you know promote sustainable local forestry practices so it should be an interesting meeting um so there is going to be a sidewalk project on Belch Town Road it's going to go from roughly the corner by um Cullin Farms down towards um Stanley Street there you know this is we're talking a year or two out but um they want to continue this sidewalk on both sides um and fix some road issues there so um we should have some information to follow on that but we're in the early design phase and we're already talking about trees and preserving trees and that's going to be another tight one because the right away there's very narrow there are actually a lot of public shade trees on that section of Belch Town Road um but we'll see there aren't there are no there's there's um literally a handful of trees that will be impacted um by this so again we're a year or more out from doing anything uh and then we can talk about but we need to talk about Arbor Day uh so we need the vote and the form for the seedling money to be released to purchase the seedlings that we voted on committee voted on um at the last meeting so um I guess Sarah and Henry if you can coordinate that so that I can get that paperwork right Sarah do you have forms I've got a form here yeah I'll fill it out and sign it and send it on to you okay I'll leave the amounts blank for you Ellen I think you yeah it's it should be in the meeting minutes too or did we did we do an amount or did it last month right yeah I think there was an amount I can check the minutes and fill that in Henry okay yeah send me the exact amount and do you know how much they cost Ellen they were two different we were doing the uh tulip poplar and paw paw they're different amounts but they're both around it was like 200 something a piece you know 400 each um so I think it was close to 500 for the I have to put the exact amount unless I leave it blank yeah it's in well it's in the minutes because I gave you the price right at the meeting so whatever we've whatever you voted on at the last meeting and who's the vendor mass tree wardens and foresters association all right I'll do that and that's all I have really is there's three wardens up to it's for 450 is what is stated in the minutes that's how much we approved up to okay yeah all right and then um does that cover it Ellen or is it more than that I think that should cover it I don't think the price has changed so okay um treasurer I have no update okay social media and website I put those as committee reports also Shoshana and Julian I don't have any update um I put the um the site visit on there and there was um a neighbor that it seems was alerted like in a butter that was alerted by that particular post which was surprising to me initially they were angry that they were finding out through us but you know I guess it it's better that they found out at all rather than not find out at all you know yeah he was a little upset at first but then he calmed down and he came to the site visit and was quite modified he was he approved of the plan so the tree was posted so there's really a poster on the tree um I know it was facing away from his house that was facing toward the street which is fine so he just didn't notice it yeah but he was like you know why is the tree committee you know hiding all this information at first when I talked to him it's like I calmed him down pretty good so yeah walk through the front yard I guess yeah um I'm sorry I just blanked out where were we so social media and right okay um Bennett any changes to the uh website no okay oh that's an easy report um I just lost my agenda all right so next we move to Mary Maple's the love letter exhibit and I have to go get my board to plug in my computer so I'll be right back but you can talk about it we still have people taking Mary Maple wood so um one of the folks is uh show me some pictures of the bowl that he is turning out of the Mary Maple um in hopes to uh give one to the committee that's very cool I think I've mentioned this before but um um it might be nice to do an exhibit of the objects people make out of it include and then we could have some some of the letters as well um but I since I recall that Britt said that we didn't get a ton of letters so I don't know if it could be I don't know if there are enough letters to be an exhibit on its own but certainly we could do a call for um all the creative things I'm sorry Susanna I I did I heard that we did get a lot of letters oh okay maybe I'm misremembering wouldn't be unusual right so we have to wait for Britt really on that but I think yeah um I think that's a great idea um I'll send her an email saying hey can you request people to you know would they be willing to exhibit their pieces in a kind of public showing so Alan um I was away for a while how can I um still get a chunk of the Mary Maple for anyone else that might be watching yep um so then reach out to me um if they want a piece I can't remember if we have some leftover they were already cut um did Britt say she had some left over Britt still has some yeah yeah now she may have a couple of big pieces left over too um but if you know like you're more than happy you can meet you down there it's pretty much what we've been doing a lot of requests that are coming in now are people who want specific sizes you know because they're trying to build a table or they're trying to turn you know a board uh bowl or something out of it um and I just meet him down there with chainsaw and we quickly cut a couple pieces that they can use um so great I'm happy to do that okay thanks okay good um Arbor month plans that's the big one and the sustainability festival we need to have our table look good we still have those signs that Bennett designed um which are great I got a lot of attention last time of the tree seedlings and then we'll need to come up with a schedule um we can probably put that off for this month but at some point soon we'll need to schedule when each person can be there who can set up I'll try to get the um the tent and things like that mechanically so I was um temp council did reach out I think it was to Henry and I um I mean it wasn't um you know what we want to have in the proclamation it was a proclamation to change or anything like that we do need to um you know finalize that we just want to keep it's kind of generic we don't want to give them too much details because we don't have everything finalized yet um I have been talking with Amherst college they tentatively have agreed to host a presentation a speaker um a lot of kind of good ideas have come out of that so we might have somebody from the Amherst history museum give a short very brief discussion of the sycamore tree that we're trying to work on and preserve um someone from the committee could dare even talk briefly and then the main speaker would get up and give his presentation on um the the difference between like mature you know heritage trees large sniffing trees and what they're why they are so different from um trees that are younger um how they how they survive uh in the world so it's a pretty cool presentation that's what he's going to be talking about that's what he's going to be talking about yeah so we need a date for that really yes so the date I hadn't heard back from Amherst college yet but it's going to be their venue so somewhere on Amherst college one of the lecture halls or something um so I really need to get the date nailed down um yeah and make sure that it's something that this the speaker can actually make so he's he works out of um New Hampshire um the US Forest Service office up in New Hampshire so yeah so let's let's try to get that and then um oh the library book reading too there was the other part of it so Arbor month was your kid's uh book reading at the Jones um so that has again tentatively their Jones is on board with that but again we don't have dates anything like that so really down the wire here nailing it this all down I'm trying to get it to some kind of uh document so that we can advertise it okay and do you have any idea when the work on the tree will start so I the deadline for companies submit bids uh is the 17th of this month um and so I would hope to have this work start in April um on the tree because we could plant the other tree but we probably should wait till that work is done yeah it'd probably be easier um I would like to have the work done in early early to mid April um so we could do a tree planting kind of maybe we could do an arbor day tree planting so that would be Friday uh before the sustainability festival or something like that that'd be good um yeah and we can do the mulching and some of the other tasks we said we would do on the the tree that day too for the big right um what day is Arbor Day this is I have it somewhere I think last Friday of April it's the 20 or Earth Day is the 28th no Arbor Day is probably Earth Day is 22nd but there's 22nd Arbor Day is the 28th okay yeah actually yeah 22nd Earth Day yeah okay so um I think I'm free on the 28th uh that's a Friday you said yes okay anyone else available to do something would be what time of the day or I'll have to wait till it gets closer to find out for sure okay Helen what time might it be what we could pick a time I guess yeah pick a time five like if we did it you know in the evening or if we did it like after lunch or um you know either one's fine for me how should I describe this in the notes what's the language I don't know what the well we're discussing Arbor month activities um and currently we're discussing the Amherst history museum um heritage tree grant which called for us to that's a work done on the tree to plant a new tree um introduce the public education outreach around the importance of uh big trees okay thank you that's great okay so we'll plan to be on Arbor day on April 28th okay so um we could if it's going to be like on the grounds of the history museum I'm just thinking um teen lounge starts at three maybe we could like integrate it with the teen lounge activity at the library that's a great idea I think that's an amazing idea yeah okay I would have to um talk to the teen lounge people before I commit them to the idea but okay um I have the feeling that that would go over pretty good so that'd be like maybe four o'clock or something following that thing or um I would say like as teen like as like a teen lounge activity so probably like at three because like that's when teen lounge starts is at three okay great sound good yeah that's great school gets out at 335 so I would almost want to give kids some time to get there oh okay yeah I just know that Arwin does like she runs teen lounge awesome her arrow will be there for this thing if it if this happens um and she's there at three so I okay so I guess 335 then yeah just because that's when most kids get out of school they get out at 335 yeah so we say 345 yeah that that's probably about right that's about when most folks make it to town okay yeah and then I don't know how to combine that with the kids reading thing but that doesn't have to be the same day we can do that another day right yeah so we have um the second Saturday planting in April which um so that would be the fifth of the eighth April 8th we have the sustainability festival in the 22nd and then the Arbor Day at the Amherst System Museum on the 28th yeah and on April 5th you have the UMass class thing right Alan there's the fifth you said yeah that's what I've written down around 11 o'clock yep forest and ag program yeah so is that enough info for you for the Arbor Day proclamation but um were you looking to do a tree walk in April or is that going to be in May we talked about Mother's Day I probably won't be able to do it on Mother's Day so um we could move that into April I was getting to be a busy month yeah I think it's um more fun with the leaves on the trees maybe like mix it up because like last year it was without right like they were just starting to come out or something I don't I don't remember somebody else wants to lead it I may not be available in May so I think we'll have to table that for now if we don't want to do it in April I mean I'm not doing it in April myself um but like but yeah it does seem like there's a lot of stuff going on in April all of a sudden for us let's let's put it off maybe we'll do it you know maybe a fall one would be nice we talked about that too I'd love to do it every season you know but yeah the fall one sounds really pretty yeah yeah let's put off the tree walk until um fall yes yeah I think that's a fantastic idea because like New England's known for its foliage you know we might even get like people from like well out of town that you know come visit for the foliage sure yeah I think that's really cool cool idea um all right so do you want us to say Ellen do you want us to say anything you want us to create something for the proclamation or are you just going to use the standard language yeah I think we use the standard language and then I need to plug in the dates so the things that are happening okay so I think we're set on that yes we have the second Saturday tree planting we have the um sustainability festival in the 22nd you know it's the 28th arbor day tree planting um at the history museum at the history museum and then whatever you want to say about April 5th yeah I don't know if you need to include that okay sincerely but um I'll think about it then we got to come up with the date for the actual presentation which is dependent on University College right okay that's great all right sustainability festival we talked about a little bit uh do we need to talk about it more now is there anything else we need to prepare ahead of time now is there actually going to be a sustainability festival this year yes oh I didn't know that can you walk silt at it and we're gonna have a booth at it yeah I started just writing up some information about uh care and planting of the pawpaw saplings and the tulip poplar so I'm hoping to get it way down it's very basic but um I'd love to have that available when you hand out the okay seedlings great I have to go um but I'll read the rest of the the notes to catch up on what I miss anything you need to add how many of the agenda items are um no I don't think so thank you for coming let's take care of Sarah thanks guys bye bye all right so town tree tow we did individual tree requests that's still on the agenda I would still love for us to come up with a system where we can just take charge of planting those trees um I don't know if we have the time today to discuss that more but keep that on keep that on the back program let's let's talk about that more okay UMass interns that we need brit for that tree nursery is another thing we've talked about but uh the people want to talk about that more today I will just throw in you know dcr it does have grants you know where you find a location preferably it would be one that you know is on town lane but it doesn't have to be um you know there is funding available to pay for some infrastructure to buy the liners that you plant in a nursery to work on watering systems you know so it'd be a a 50-50 matching grant um where you have to come up with money to pay for everything at first and then match the amount with in kind service um so could definitely make a nursery happen very you know economically it's then the maintenance and care to keep that those trees alive and to make sure they get dug at a at the right age so they don't get too big right which is often what happens with nurseries is the trees get too big yeah so we we've got a really a three year three four year commitment to to this project um but some we're probably not going to start it this year so why don't we why don't we try to shoot for fall discussing it and really get it on the agenda and and decide to start next spring okay so if we want so I'll just add that if we want to do it and we you know so if we start discussing it this fall the deadline is in November for the grants so um we would need to know you know in October essentially if we're going to try to get a grant okay to do a tree nursery if you want to do something in this spring so deadline is in November yes good all right so that's everything from the presentations discussions we have the old ongoing items the town tree inventory any word on that no update on that okay stock bridge school that's again brit uh history museum we talked about the library trees um we'll see if the library gets built but uh i did have a site visit Henry I can give you an update on that um yeah so I did see a copy of the plans and I met with the uh landscape consultant that's working on it and we did walk around and identified trees and on the plan and trees that were going to be removed um so as as designed you know um the big oak in the back goes um and some other um smaller trees around go of course um so there is going to be some tree in fact they don't really talk there's not much yet on new tree plantings but we are trying to get trees planted out front as well so the trees we put in a few years ago along the street are doing well it's nice yeah but that oak is a big tree it's a big loss yeah the the elm tree that we planted early on in our project uh way way back um which is now a nice kind of small medium size tree we'd have we'll have to go it we'll have to be cut down if they design the front sidewalk the way they are proposing to do it I did throw out an idea to move the sidewalk away from the tree so it wouldn't have to be removed. Where is the elm? So if you're standing in the road looking at the Jones um on the left side of the building front is a Princeton elm that we planted um back in 2009 somewhere around there um back before I was a full-time employee with the town um and uh it's a nice tree it got hammered by the October 2011 snowstorm a lot of damage to it but it just came back with the vengeance um and uh it made me impacted. All right if we can save that tree it'd be good um anything else on this statewide initiatives um um there's nothing new on that I don't think significant tree ordinance I don't think anything is new on that anything new on the solar bylaw group Julie and I filled out the solar survey everyone yes I did as well and everyone has the ability to you should go onto the town website and fill out the solar survey that they've made for most people in the community to take any um any committee members members of the public town staff everyone is welcome to fill it out and I would encourage you to do that other than that I do not have any updates on this end. Okay can you send the link to that survey to the group? Yes I can I will get it right now thank you. Is it everybody in the committee seeing the most recent um notice that went out regarding the uh consultant they're doing to solar for solar mapping in town and um there's some public meetings they're going to have um at the jones for people to talk and discuss and to do some kind of game about solar uh and it's on the town website now there is a this past Monday there was a zoom meeting which is probably recorded or will be available Friday um there was a presentation given about what the solar mapping is all about and how the town is going to use it and they want again they want people's input. Can you send uh send me the link I'll send it out to everyone? Yeah I can send you the notice you got I don't know the reason I know about it because I got one it was auto automatic news events emails so. How is the form this is the response form to the uh yes that's correct so everyone can copy that down yeah everyone check the chat it's there I can also send an email after this meeting if you guys want yeah because uh Britt and Sarah wouldn't get it on the chat so great yeah great is this uh is this the same one that you sent like a while ago because I think I I have a vague memory of actually doing it already no it's pretty new I believe it wasn't sent like earlier this month or something or it might have been why don't you I didn't send it but if let me check my email why don't you click on it and see if you you'll see pretty quick if you've filled it out before I think yeah if you fill it out twice that's not a terrible thing no I didn't get any emails on it um okay I wonder if maybe I got it in another way I'll I'll see if it'll let me do it again it's possible I've gotten a few emails about it from non-committee related sources all right um anything else on this no I have one other item since the last thing on the agenda is topics not reasonably anticipated by the chair and that's the birch trees in front of the town hall that are slated to be taken down and uh they're not public shade trees so we don't have jurisdiction over them but I did talk with Alan about my concerns um and Alan said that they're did not well so I'll let Alan talk a little bit about it yep so um part of the design for the common actually crosses street and goes into the front of town hall so there's a new plaza area being built and improved sidewalk and a bike bike racks and things like that and it's going to cut into the hill there's a little grassy knoll in front of town hall um and there's a birch tree there that is um you know medium medium size tree pretty you know it's been there there was another clump there I think before that was taken away a long time ago um but one of the leaders of that tree snapped out one of the trunks um is a clump birch and uh I've been watching the two remaining leaders for some time now and there's you know there is decay that's getting into you know where that first trunk failed um and at some point you know not too distant future I'll have to make a call that's going to get removed um Henry did make a good point that you know you with birch if you cut down you know all the the stems they'll sucker out and make a new tree you know from water sprouts so there's that uh so we pose currently to take the tree out and plant new trees uh in the location or a new tree at least um then we're working on some species selection for that location um but there wouldn't be a public state tree hearing because it's not in the public way as master journal art chapter seven um defines it so it's just on town property um is it possible to let it sucker out again um instead of planting a new tree or putting one yard yeah it's possible we're gonna have to cut the roots pretty good on the tree to cut the banking to do the the plaza sidewalk bike rack area um so that's that's why it's being proposed for your mood was because of the root damage to it okay thanks I'm happy to meet if you know want to meet as a group or if you want to meet individually or if you just want to go look at the tree um you know if you walk around the backside of the tree you'll see where the third trunk was um and uh you'll see what I'm talking about I guess okay great I appreciate it do we want to do a site visit there I don't feel need the way everyone's described it but uh no I understand it pretty well I don't feel like I need it either okay mills agree okay I agree all right so that's all I have anyone have anything to add um Alan I'm glad you guys took down that tree on pot wine first tree oh my god I drive under it two times a day did you see the did you see the logs in the parking lot yeah yeah I had I mean I knew I had a feeling there might be some decay in the trunk that was unbelievable oh really it was it had about three inches of holy wood on a 30 inch diameter trunk and it went 40 feet up into it it was hollow like 40 feet up into the trunk of the tree it was impressive wow just goes to show you how strong a cylinder is right as far as an engineering that thing was 30 degree angle though it was just just waiting to fall right onto the road it had been growing at an angle for a long time and then we had this we had a storm one of those big wind storms we had this past year actually did start to lift the root plate on the back side of the tree you see starting to lift so um yeah I'll miss it it was fun to watch sort of scary to drive under though yeah let's drive fast right yeah that's right thanks everyone good to see you all right thanks everybody thank you everyone bye bye bye as soon as you can