About the Somerville Parks Tree Health Program

Contact Information

Contact Information

Employee Directory

Jump To:

Overview
Schedule
Assessments
Process

In March of 2020, the City implemented a proactive Parks Tree Health Program. It focused on Somerville-owned parks and delivering the best arboreal practices to promote healthy tree growth. Each year, four to seven parks will cycle through this program. This program is designed to go beyond routine maintenance and to put parks on a six-year health maintenance cycle. 

The program involves 1) the completion of a comprehensive health assessment of the trees in each park by a certified arborist, 2) a work plan for proactively maintaining those trees, 3) the execution of that work, as well as long term maintenance recommendations. 

A health assessment includes: 

  • General conditions: describes the conditions in which the trees are growing and identifies unique challenges and/or opportunities 
  • Soil health: examines compaction, tests soil for PH and macronutrient levels 
  • Pest treatment: looks for evidence of any pests, harmful fungi or disease on trees 
  • Other correction of adverse conditions: records conditions such as girdling roots, evidence of storm damage, structural abnormalities, or other observed conditions or vulnerabilities 
  • Pruning: identifies pruning needs for tree health, proper branch structure, safety, visual and structural clearance 
  • Removal: identifies trees that require removal because they are dying, diseased, considered a hazard or some other hazardous condition. All of these trees have been assessed by the City Inventory, the consulting arborist for the Parks Tree Health Program and verified by the City’s Urban Foresters. Although a tree may have some buds or leaves on it, and may be large, old and beloved, if a tree is dead beyond recovery, it has reached the end of its life cycle. 

Maintenance work will be guided by the assessment of each park. Parks may be temporarily closed during maintenance. 

Proactive maintenance extends the life cycle of the urban forest; and, therefore its "ecoservices benefits", which include stormwater absorption, providing shade and habitat as well as carbon sequestration. It also protects the City against liability caused by hazard trees and assures the safety of park users. This year in the eighth iteration of the Parks Tree Health Program, over 400 trees throughout 12 parks will be assessed and have their maintenance needs attended to. 

Parks Tree Health Work Schedule / Park Closures – (Subject to change / updates)

  • Albion Playground - TBD 2027
  • Central Hill Park - TBD 2027
  • Durrell Pocket Park & Community Garden - TBD 2027
  • Florence Playground - TBD 2027
  • Marshall Street Playground - TBD 2027
  • Nunziato Playground - TBD 2027
  • Osgood Park - TBD 2027
  • Palmacci Playground - TBD 2027
  • Perry Park - TBD 2027
  • Seven Hills Park - TBD 2027
  • Statue Park - TBD 2027
  • Walnut Street Park - TBD 2027

2026 Park Health Assessments

2025 Park Health Assessments

2024 Park Health Assessments

2023 Park Health Assessments

2022 Park Health Assessments                          

2021 Park Health Assessments

2020 Park Health Assessments

Tree maintenance in progress: canopy cleaning, safety clearance, structural pruning, root pruning, hazard removal

Contact Information

Employee Directory

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!