The Cambridge City Council Health and Environment Committee on Monday launched a five-year update to the city’s Urban Forest Master Plan and heard a status report from Department of Public Works staff and outside consultants on canopy trends, outreach and remaining gaps.

Councilor Nolan, chair of the Health and Environment Committee, said the meeting was intended to review progress on targets set in the original 2019 plan, explain the update process and solicit public feedback before staff prepare recommendations.

The update matters because lidar and other analyses show overall canopy coverage in Cambridge rose from the levels cited in the 2019 plan to just over 30% in 2024, but coverage remains uneven across neighborhoods and much canopy loss continues to occur on private, single-family parcels, officials said.

Andrew Putnam, Superintendent of Forestry, and Stephanie Shaw of consultant Reed Hilderbrand summarized the plan’s origins and findings. They said the original plan set neighborhood targets (a minimum 25% canopy by neighborhood), sidewalk canopy and heat-island reduction goals and actions to diversify species and curb loss. Putnam described the update as three phases—analysis, recommendations, and documentation—scheduled to deliver final documents toward 2026 and said the team will hold at least one public meeting during the process.

City and consultant figures gave the following headline figures drawn from lidar harmonization and the 2024 canopy report: an adjusted 2009 baseline of about 26.7% canopy, a 2018 measurement previously reported at 25.3%, and a 2024 canopy of roughly 30.2–30.3%, for a net increase of just over 5 percentage points from 2018 to 2024. The consultants said the lidar methods have improved in resolution and the datasets were harmonized to ensure apples-to-apples comparison.

Commissioner John Nardone and DPW staff described several policy and practice results the city counts as successes since 2019: an amendment to the tree protection ordinance (reducing the regulated threshold to 6-inch diameter at breast height), a tree fund that has collected about $2.4 million since 2019 to support plantings, expanded species diversification and new planting techniques including three Miyawaki-style plantings, and an increase in annual plantings (staff reported roughly 1,200 public plantings per year). Staff also reported planting survival rates in their database: balled-and-burlap trees about 89% (for ~2,700+ trees) and bare-root trees about 80% (for ~1,175 trees), and that newly planted trees come with a two-year contractor warranty.

Public commenters and committee members emphasized two persistent challenges: (1) canopy inequity across neighborhoods and (2) tree loss on private property, especially where development or utility work severs roots. Charles Tighe, a resident of Jackson Street, described a case in which an excavation for an electric-vehicle charger damaged a neighbor’s tree and said, “In Massachusetts, you pay for cutting down your own trees, not the developer who cut off the roots.” DPW staff confirmed Massachusetts law allows pruning to the property line so long as the action does not kill the tree, and staff said the department has limited enforcement authority over private-party work; they rely on outreach, certified arborist reports and voluntary compliance.

Committee members, the committee on public planting co-chairs Cindy Carpenter and Sophia Amparador, and other speakers pressed for expanded outreach in multiple languages, more targeted engagement of large landowners and institutions, incentives for private and institutional planting and clearer signage and public information. Carpenter said the city is “running out of space” on city-owned land and urged incentives for planting on institutional and commercial property. Several participants recommended posting tree-permit notices on trees before removal, improving multilingual distribution of the Forest Friends newsletter (about 1,200 subscribers), and better coordination with inspectional services and other departments when private construction could affect nearby trees.

Staff also addressed recent concerns about Linear Park in North Cambridge. Commissioner Nardone said crews do not intend a clear-cut; the contractor must have a certified arborist on site and DPW staff will coordinate to preserve trees as much as possible. Work to repair or restore irrigation in parts of the park was discussed as a key element of tree survival.

Next steps in the five-year update include deeper analysis of canopy by neighborhood and landowner type, interviews with stakeholders, public engagement events, and a set of draft recommendations that the consultant and DPW expect to present to the committee for feedback before finalizing documentation toward 2026. The committee closed the meeting by approving a motion to adjourn by roll call (three yes votes; two members recorded absent).