As we were reading the news story in last week’s newspaper about the efforts of Tree Eastie, a non-profit organization that focuses on planting and maintaining trees to increase East Boston’s scarce tree canopy, it brought to mind the poem Trees by Joyce Kilmer that we learned in third grade from the nuns at Our Lady of Grace School in Everett:
I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
We have lived in this area all of our lives, but we have to admit that we were stunned to read East Boston’s tree canopy sits at 7% – the lowest in the City of Boston – which averages 27%.
As the article noted, not only do trees help to reduce air pollution, but they can cool down streets, filter stormwater, and even increase property values.
So we wish to acknowledge the efforts of Tree Eastie, which was founded by Bill Masterton, which already has achieved great success with the planting of 164 street trees over the last 15 months.
An equally-significant aspect of this undertaking is the maintenance of new and existing trees. Residents can participate through Tree Eastie’s Adopt-a-Tree program, which asks residents with trees near their homes to sign up and water them.
We know we speak for all of our fellow Eastie residents in thanking Tree Eastie for their efforts and we urge as many of our residents as possible to volunteer to assist with this wonderful program.
(Residents who want to get involved can visit https://treeeastie.org/ or email [email protected].)