1/11/21

Do you have a favorite neighborhood tree? Want to learn how to protect it, care for your own trees, and see if you qualify for a free tree from the state? Tree experts will discuss all of these issues and more in a panel discussion on January 21 at 7 pm. The Thomas Crane Library, a co-sponsor of the event, will host the discussion on Zoom, YouTube and Facebook (details below).

Trees improve air quality, lower stress, boost moods, reduce crime levels, and improve home values. They also lower heating and cooling costs, reduce stormwater runoff, and remove the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, storing the carbon as wood and releasing the oxygen back into the air.

“To me, as a tree warden and a certified arborist for the city, a street tree is just as important as a utility pole, as a fire hydrant, as a catch basin. But even more important because it does more than just that one thing,” says Chris Hayward, who will discuss his work as Quincy’s tree warden at the panel discussion. “It’s very important to make sure that our urban forest is healthy and providing us the benefits that we need, because if we didn’t have it, we’d know. We’d be in trouble.”

Also participating in the panel will be Boston University biologist Pamela Templer, who will discuss the amazing science behind trees, and Ahron Lerman, an urban forester for the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, who will talk about a tree giveaway program in Quincy (https://www.maurbancanopy.org/town/quincy/).

Maggie McKee, a member of Quincy Climate Action Network (QCAN), will help moderate the event. “Trees are climate superheroes, hoovering up and locking away carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,” she says. “But they also make a neighborhood feel homey. After some beautiful old trees were cut down near me, an older man who used to sit under one of them and chat with people stopped coming outside. I feel the loss every time I walk down the street.”

Participate in the event on Jan. 21 @ 7 pm by logging in to Zoom (https://bit.ly/TCPL-Trees-2021-01), YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/ThomasCranePublicLibrary), or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/tcplibrary/live/), or dial (646) 558-8656 and use the meeting ID 883 9974 9333. The event is co-sponsored by the Thomas Crane Library, QCAN, Quincy for Transformative Change’s Environmental Justice Task Force, and Fore River Residents Against the Compressor Station.