A week ahead of the first snowflakes of the season apparently, the Newton Tree Conservancy planted 32 trees last Saturday with homeowners, volunteers, and Marc Welch and the Urban Forestry tree crew, spread among three locations: Albemarle Road in Newtonville along Cheesecake Brook, Pine Crest Road near Four Corners, and for the first time, in Newton Lower Falls. We were lucky again with the weather, having nice weather for both people and the trees on planting day, followed by a good rain on Sunday and later in the week.

We’re also very happy at the prospect of city-funded tree planting once again in the CIP, which as envisioned, will gradually increase so that by year 3 or 4, there should be more trees being planted than 600+ street trees per year we are losing. The first of these plantings will probably be next fall, with 100 trees being planted during FY15, probably starting with a few streets with the highest ratio of empty spots to plantable spots. Marc has been doing a count, snowplow route by snowplow route (there are about 70, and it’s a convenient way to divide the city and cover everything), counting trees and empty plantable spots, which will be the basis for a planting plan.

We also hope to do another 100 Newton Tree Conservancy trees in calendar year 2014, and we’re accepting group applications for those through December 6, so it’s not too late for anyone who would like to organize a neighborhood group. You can find more information here.

I had a couple of nice photos to include, but it seems we have exceeded our quota of storage space, so for now you will have to use your imaginations!