By Judy Locchi Jacobs

A neighbor and I were talking about the condition of the sidewalk trees in our neighborhood in early June. She pointed out black spots on the foliage scattered on our street and sidewalks. I was aware that we have a city arborist and tried to reach the arborist without success. So I contacted Councilman Matt McLaughlin from Ward 1. Over the years, we had become acquainted and I always find Matt to be responsive and helpful. So he reached out to the city arborist to let him know what the issue was with our sidewalk trees.

The photo above is the same trees that have lined our street and our neighborhood in Ward 7. The sidewalk trees begin at the base of Mead Street. Adjacent streets are Cameron Avenue, Claremon Street and Moore Street.

I can only conclude that my experience dealing with the city arborists was disappointing. Their emails were vague, no mention of their willingness to discuss the trees in person with neighbors and provide an answer to restore the health of the trees. The last reply suggested that the sidewalk trees may swing back on their own, or be removed from Mead Street and new trees will be planted.

Here is my overall impression: I am concerned that our city trees are not being maintained as needed. If the trees were checked on a routine basis, treated as needed throughout our city, we would not be dealing with this problem.
There must be sufficient funds to cover a budget for the arborists’ work on sidewalk trees. If asked, would anyone share how much it costs the taxpayers to remove and replace sidewalk trees? Can we ask for an audit? While we are at it, can we inquire what the city budget is overall and how much money collected from our yearly taxes is being invested in our community to make our city a thriving community? What about all the new condo development going on throughout Somerville?

My questions for the arborists: How many are on staff maintaining sidewalk trees? Are they experienced certified arborists? How often are they checking all of our sidewalk trees throughout the city? Did they check to see if the trees were invasive? It turns out – they are. The arborist argument is legitimate, yet it continues to beg the question -What will become of the trees on Mead Street? Will they all be uprooted? If so, which species of tree will be planted in their place?

Those are just some of the questions we should demand answers for. We as taxpayers are the owners of the sidewalk trees.

If your street is experiencing the same issues as our neighborhood, please leave a comment. Or you can find me on the Facebook Somerville Community Page. I have had 26 comments discussing this problem as of this afternoon.

I have a 150 year old European Copper beech tree and hired an arborist to treat the tree of bleeding canker disease. A few years ago, nematodes (ground worms) had embedded into the roots of the beech. I hired an arborist and the tree has recovered, yet it is temporary. The treatments will be ongoing. It’s still standing strong and has been in our family for nearly 100 years. Somerville was once a dairy farm, we inherited the tree. I have learned a great deal about caring for the beech tree and why it is important to have inspections on our sidewalk trees early on, before the diseases set in. I can still recall being in the backyard covered in mud and finding tree frogs as a 5 year old. Those of us who love our trees consider them members of our family. They deserve the same attention and care. Please leave a comment if you are having the same issues with your sidewalk trees.