Northampton Forestry commissioners organize volunteer tree-care zones and set April planting date

The Northampton Urban Forestry Commission on March 18 discussed expanding volunteer tree-care efforts, finalizing nursery orders and logistics for an April planting day, and continuing winter pruning work.

"We've done over 650 trees" so far this season, said commissioner Molly Hail, reporting on pruning and maintenance that ranged from light snipping on young plantings to thinning larger, 10-year-old trees. Commissioners agreed to continue pruning for a few more weeks and to reassess in early April.

The commission decided to divide the city into care zones to assign volunteer teams, or "pods," responsibility for clusters of young trees. The volunteer list currently includes roughly 16 people; commissioners estimated forming about a dozen pods so teams could share tasks such as weeding, reestablishing mulch rings and replacing guards. The DPW has "several hundred" green buckets that commissioners plan to distribute to volunteers after planting season to ease material transport.

Commissioners identified potential mulch and compost staging sites to support volunteer crews, including Spring Grove DPW, Locust Street, and Sheldon Field. They also discussed coordinating with the community gardens (contact: Larry, the gardens' master gardener) and with the parking commission about a possible space under the South Street bridge. Commissioners cautioned against informal or uncontrolled dumping at unsecured sites.

Planning is underway for a volunteer planting day of service on April 18, with April 19 as an alternate date. David Lukans said the principal at JFK has been "very supportive of as many trees as we can plant," and commissioners planned a site-staking visit with school staff and maintenance before finalizing locations. The commission stressed it will confirm school approvals before delivering plant material.

On logistics, commissioners debated planting formats and materials. They will decide whether to use bare-root stock or grow bags once they have final tree counts and nursery availability. Jen Warner shared a nursery inventory that showed availability for a 50-tree order totaling $885; commissioners discussed preferring grow bags for ease of handling by volunteers but acknowledged some species may be ball-and-burlap.

Commissioners also discussed operational details such as dig-safe concerns for deep trenching near cemetery areas, photographic documentation of staked sites, and an April 1 deadline to collect pruning-hour and tree-count data for an accompanying mayoral proclamation and press release scheduled for mid-April.

A separate, individual setback request from a condo president at 90 Pomeroy Terrace asking for one additional tree after removal of a large pine was noted; commissioners asked staff to collect contact information and add the request to the shared tracking sheet for Christina to review.

The meeting concluded after routine housekeeping and a motion to adjourn was approved.

The commission expects to finalize nursery orders and planting format after the site visit and final counts, and to provide numbers for the proclamation by April 1.