In downturn, tree programs clipped

But help may be on the way, as the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation partners with church groups and others on tree-planting initiatives and continues a matching grant program to encourage communities to plant trees.

Supporters of tree programs say trees are important in providing a habitat for birds and other species, helping rainwater renew aquifers, releasing oxygen into the air, mitigating climate change, and adding aesthetics and shade.

The programs also help in defining the character of a community.

“I think it’s part of the fabric of the community,’’ said Thomas Brady, Brookline’s arborist and tree warden. “It’s distinctive. When you drive in through the town borders, you can almost immediately tell when you’ve changed municipalities because of the density of the tree canopy.’’

But officials in communities with no ready cash to care for their trees say they can barely cope with removing trees that could shed branches or fall down and cause property damage or injury. Even Newton’s tree program, once the envy of smaller communities, has been scaled back, while Plainville and Berlin have no tree programs at all.

“We don’t do much maintenance,’’ said Calvin Hall, Plainville highway superintendent who seconds as tree warden. “When they die, I take them down. We take the worst ones first. The rest - we wait for another year. I don’t have much money in my budget.’’

More than half a century ago, even before the coining of the sobriquet “tree huggers’’ for environmentalists, arboreal enthusiasts in Brookline insisted on protecting and maintaining its canopy.

More recently, Lexington, Newton, and Wellesley adopted vigorous tree programs. In all four communities, the dedication is evident in relatively large budgets devoted to trees, including a census of the community’s population of leafy giants.

In Brookline, for instance, Town Meeting this year adopted a capital plan recommending spending a total of $1.3 million over six years on tree replenishment, according to Erin Chute Gallentine, director of the town’s Parks and Open Space Division. This year’s tree replacement budget was voted at $150,000, she said.

Also, tree maintenance crews remove diseased trees and plant new ones and manage pests that could harm them, at a total yearly cost of more than $300,000, she said.

Brady said the town plants an average of 200 new trees annually. This spring, he said, the count was 210, with 35 more expected to go in on Beacon Street and Route 9.

Brady said a census shows that Brookline has about 12,700 street trees and is responsible for the care of about 50,000 trees, including those in parks and schoolyards.

Brady said Brookline is “probably unique’’ in having had a commitment to a comprehensive tree program for so long, but interest elsewhere has arisen in the past 15 to 20 years.

In 2004, Lexington began a tree census, now about half finished, according to John Frey, chairman of the Lexington Tree Committee, appointed by the Board of Selectmen. The committee estimates they will find and catalog a total of about 11,000 trees, Frey said.

In this fiscal year, the town’s forestry budget is $276,628, including $19,000 for planting trees, and the rest for maintaining existing trees, said Town Manager Carl Valente. He said the town also has a tree nursery on municipal conservation land that has about 200 young trees planted for future use.

Wellesley, too, has an ongoing tree inventory, with 3,000 street-lining shade trees counted so far, according to Janet Hartke Bowser, executive director of the town’s Natural Resources Commission.

The town spends approximately $25,000 each year to plant new trees, she said.

But Newton’s tree program, which started in the 1990s and had volunteers inventory 33,000 trees on municipal property, has fallen on hard times. Jeremy Solomon, city spokesman, said the city has had no money for new plantings for the past seven years, while over the past two decades, the annual tree maintenance budget has remained at $200,000.

Still, Newton did receive 70 trees last fall through the MassReLeaf Ministry, which collects money from religious groups to purchase and plant trees in communities across the state. Neal Seaborn, director of the ecumenical program, said Andover Newton Theological School and Hebrew College partnered with the state Department of Conservation and Recreation on the Newton plantings.

The plantings came under the umbrella of the agency’s Urban and Community Forestry Program, which gives grants and technical assistance to communities and nonprofit groups for tree protection and replacement. In April, the program, headed by Eric Seaborn, Neal Seaborn’s son, awarded grants ranging from $4,500 to $30,000 to communities and nonprofit groups for tree plantings, including $5,000 to Bedford.

Hall said about five or six years ago Plainville was the recipient of such a grant and used the $1,500 to plant 15 trees.

But in Plainville and elsewhere, the economic downturn has made it difficult for communities to establish any kind of tree programs. State law requires that every community have a tree warden, but in Plainville and Berlin, the designee also doubles in another job.

Hall said the only reason he was appointed warden was because “nobody else would take it.’’ Hall said Plainville’s annual budget for tree removal is about $3,000.

As for a census, Hall said he does not have the time. “I spend enough time worrying about whether to take [trees] down,’’ he said.

Hall said the town does have a Tree Gift Account, which has collected only $200.

Dennis Bartlett, Berlin’s tree warden, said he also serves as highway superintendent, emergency management director, and Fire Department rescue chief. Bartlett said he takes the cost of removal of dead or damaged trees out of the highway budget. He estimated his budget for tree removal at about $4,125 annually. The town has no tree inventory.

Connie Paige can be reached at connie_paige@yahoo.com.