Newton's campaign to turn over a new leaf

By Michele Morgan Bolton, Globe Correspondent

When Arbor Day arrives on April 24, the Newton Tree Conservancy will be ready. Recently launched to preserve and promote shade trees, the group will plant five tulip trees in various locations around the Garden City.

The city has 33,000 trees on public land, but in the past decade, more than 5,500 specimens have been removed. More than $200,000 of the Forestry Department's $400,000 budget goes to contractors to help remove dead trees and prune sick ones.

While about 500 trees are removed each year, the city has been able to plant just 800 trees over the past five years, nearly all funded by its Tree Preservation Ordinance Fund, officials said.

Because the city's budget is limited in maintaining its urban forest, the Newton Tree Conservancy has worked for the past year to create a safety net for the old trees and hope for new ones. Since starting its fund-raising efforts in October, the group has raised $6,500.

The conservancy planted a big tulip tree by City Hall last fall, and on Arbor Day will plant five more in various locations to be decided. Members are also working with the city's Forestry Department on an in-house nursery, which already has about 120 saplings. Those will be planted around the city when they are big enough.

"We don't have big numbers yet in terms of planting," said Katherine Howard, the group's president. "But we do have big ideas and plans."

With about 80 members so far, the conservancy will eventually give grants to residents to plant trees in their neighborhoods, along with offering a roster of educational programming and community events.

"We have 30,000 shade trees in terrible shape that have been pruned to death and whacked away at by utility companies," Howard said. "We live in such a beautiful community. The original founders provided for us and cared about future generations."

Without focused efforts now, she predicted, "When a child that is in third grade now retires, there won't be any more street trees in Newton."

More information about Howard's organization is available on its website, www.newtontreeconservancy.org.