SMA Massachusetts Liaison

Massachusetts Arthur Goodhind [email protected]

State Coordinators: 

Julie Coop: Urban & Community Forester [email protected]

http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/conservation/forestry-and-fire-control/urban-and-community-forestry.html

Mollie Freilicher: Community Action Forester [email protected]

http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/conservation/forestry-and-fire-control/urban-and-community-forestry.html

Welcome to the Massachusetts State Liaison Webpage for the Society of Municipal Arborist! Our goal for this webpage is to provide users information regarding state trends in Urban and Municipal Forestry, provide notifications of educational opportunities, and share opportunities to network and engage with State Co-coordinators and other industry peers.  Thank you for visiting our site stay tuned for more updates.

Looking for Educational Opportunities? Need CEU’s? Check out these links.

Cambridge Tree Removal Moratorium

Check out this article highlighting the Tree Removal Moratorium in Cambridge MA

https://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/news/20190227/cambridge-councilors-pass-tree-removal-moratorium.   

Hardiness Zone Changes, a reminder

Our industry partners at the Arbor Day Foundation have created this animation showing the changes in the USDA zoning.  Choosing tree species in New England has certainly become more challenging in the last few years.  Although New England has experienced a warming trend, the region has also experienced extremely unseasonably cold temperatures during the winter months.  These recent weather patterns have made species selection difficult. 

https://www.arborday.org/media/mapchanges.cfm

Parasitic Fly Release a Success!

In 2005 an initiative funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the U.S. Forest Service, and the USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) led by Entomologist Joesph Elkington and colleagues from the University of Massachusetts released a parasitic fly to provide biological control of Winter Moth.  The results reported in 2018 state that the release of 80,000 flies (Cyzenis albicans) was a success to drastically reduce the population of Winter Moth in the area.  Thank you to all of those involved to help control and hopefully eradicate the Winter Moth.  I am sure we will see presentations to follow at all of our local and perhaps national events.

http://masstreewardens.org/

UMASS Extension, Landscape, Nursery and Urban Forestry Program

Most certainly spring is taking its time coming to New England.  Despite the cold weather, UMASS Extension continues to publish the Landscape Message.  This message provides a periodic synopsis of the regional weather conditions as well as plant and pest activity and includes direct observations of blooming and pest life cycles.

https://ag.umass.edu/landscape/landscape-message

Massachusetts Forest Health

As degree days begin to accumulate be sure to watch for populations of Winter Moth and Gypsy Moth.  Many updates can be found on the links provided on this webpage.  Also continue to monitor for Emerald Ash Borer (EAB).  Consensus is that EAB is expected to be found more frequently and will spread throughout The Commonwealth.  If you haven’t already, you should consider developing a proactive EAB program for your most valuable specimens. If you do inspect Ash for removal be sure to check for borer damage and scrape back the bark to look for the EAB signature of zig-zag borer tunnels that enlarge from narrow to wide as the larvae increase in size.  If you suspect EAB in your community be sure to notify the state officials listed above.

http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/conservation/forestry-and-fire-control/forest-health.html

Spring Storm Damage and Utility Liaisons

If you are managing municipal trees and haven’t introduced yourself to the Utility Liaisons and Utility Arborists, be sure to do so.  A strong partnership with the Utility Liaison can be very valuable in storm damage situations and proactive storm potential mitigation.  Building a collaborative relationship is not easy but begin by aligning your goals as a Municipal Arborist with those goals of the Utility Arborist.  As a Municipal Arborist you have the Duty of Care in MA to care for the Public Trees and protect the travelers within the public way.  A Utility Arborist has the goal of minimizing to a reasonable extent damage to the electrical service equipment.  Tree failure both endangers travelers and has a high likely-hood of damaging electrical service equipment.  What a great place to start.

For emergency response to both clear the public way and to repair damage to electrical service equipment knowledge of electrical service equipment is a must.  Knowing the basics of electrical service equipment and translating what you see as a first responder to the Utility company can greatly improve response.  The Electrical Hazard Awareness Program is a great tool to learn this topic, but if a course is not available spend some time with your Utility Arborist.

The relationship with Police and Fire is equally as critical.  Police and Fire first responders may have less specific knowledge of electrical service equipment or maybe not.  Whether the call is from the Police Department or a resident, be sure to ask the right questions to turn a ‘branch in the wires’ call to a ‘branch in the three-phase primary conductor, phase to phase, pole to pole 238 over 5 to 238 over 6’.  Also helpful is to train others that may take this call for you to ask the right questions.  This information can be extremely valuable to help prioritize resources, clear the debris you can and identify where you will need help from the Utility.   

Links of Interest: 

Biography: I was born and raised in Shutesbury Massachusetts and hold a AS from the Stockbridge School of Agriculture, a BS from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and an MBA from Bentley University.  I am a Massachusetts Certified Arborist and have the pleasure to serve on the Executive Board of the Massachusetts Tree Wardens and Forester’s Association, Treasurer of the New England Sports Turf Managers Association, and now the Massachusetts State Liaison for the Society of Municipal Arborist.  Currently I hold the position of Tree Warden for the Town of Natick Massachusetts, Department of Public Works.