The Speak for the Trees organization is hitting the ground running in 2020, and are looking for volunteers in Charlestown to help residents find areas to plant new street trees.
Speak for the Trees was welcomed into Charlestown last year after they did a study of the City and found that Charlestown had one of the smallest tree canopies in the city. The organization is working to plant more trees in parks like Barry Field (the Oilies), but also they are looking to conscript residents to catalog existing street trees and identify appropriate places for new street trees.
David Meshoulam of Speak for the Trees said they are holding a training this month to find “VolunTREErs” to help them collect data.
“We are holding a training session to teach residents how to identify available planting sites for new street trees,” he said. “The information that these VolunTREErs collect will populate our tree inventory map. We hope to follow up in the spring with a second training session so that VolunTREErs can identify and log information on street trees. This is part of our efforts to map out all of Boston’s street trees in the next two years.”
The training will take place on Saturday, Jan. 25, from 10 a.m. to noon in the Charlestown Boys & Girls Club on High Street. Those interested are asked to bring a Smart Phone, measuring tape and appropriate attire to be outside in the weather.
The training will help residents learn about the importance of Boston’s urban forest, and how to help locate and map homes for new trees. Volunteers will be taught how to measure correctly, and collect data on empty sites in Charlestown. They will also be taught how to enter that data into the organization’s Open Tree Map online.
RSVP via email to [email protected] or on Facebook.