Pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2023, this meeting will be conducted via remote and in-person participation at the Somerville City Council Chambers.
About the Event
Event |
LOCATION
Please join the City of Somerville’s Urban Forestry & Landscape Planner, the City Tree Warden, and staff from the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development for a public information session to discuss Somerville’s plan for treatment and/or removal of trees affected by emerald ash borer. Emerald ash borer is an invasive beetle responsible for the destruction of millions of ash trees in the United States, and was recently detected in the City of Somerville, making it the 43rd Massachusetts community to confirm the presence of the pest.
In 2016, Somerville developed a monitoring and treatment strategy for the public ash trees that may have been susceptible to emerald ash borer, including:
- Trapping: Traps have been installed on select ash trees across the city for early detection of this pest, and to monitor population size and distribution.
- Preventive Treatment: As a preventive measure, healthy and fair condition ash trees are injected on a regular schedule with the organic insecticide TreeAzin, which can ward off emerald ash borers. This treatment must be applied every two years.
- Tree Removal ONLY When Necessary: Unfortunately, sometimes trees are too sick to respond to treatment. In these cases, where absolutely necessary, dying and sick ash trees, which are more susceptible to infestation and can thus endanger nearby healthy ash trees, are removed and replaced with other varieties of tree that thrive well in an urban environment.
The City of Somerville has approximately 1,000 public ash trees (100 of which are on State property), which represents roughly 8 percent of the more than 12,000 public trees currently in the city. In May 2016, the City held a tree hearing to discuss the planned removal and replacement of approximately 124 sick, dying, or otherwise particularly vulnerable ash trees, including 60 that are scheduled to be removed in November 2018 as discussed at the hearing.
For more information on the Urban Forestry Program in Somerville including emerald ash borer prevention, please visit www.somervillema.gov/urbanforestry. For further information on State data on the pest and efforts to curtail emerald ash borer, please see the Emerald Ash Borer guide on mass.gov.
Event Documents
| Document Type | Time Posted | |
|---|---|---|
| Meeting Materials | Oct 30, 2018, 10:30pm |
Location
Upcoming Events
Metro Boston Homeland Security Region's JPOC Meeting
-
Public meeting of a regional group with participants and topics of discussion that relate to the metro Boston region. The meeting will be held virtually.
Feedback
Please submit website feedback using this form. Be sure to include:
A description of the issue (if any)
A link to the affected pages
Thank you for your feedback!