By Michael Coughlin Jr.
Bill Masterson, the founder of Tree Eastie, a non-profit organization that focuses on planting, maintaining, and educating people about the benefits of trees, joined the Harbor View Neighborhood Association’s (HVNA) monthly meeting last week to review their recent work and upcoming plans.
Notably, Masterson indicated that Tree Eastie planted 190 trees in 2024, which brings the organization’s total trees planted to 499. “So we’ll be planting our 500th tree this spring, which is pretty cool,” he said.
Moreover, Masterson mentioned that Tree Eastie has a program in which it will plant a tree in your yard for free. The non-profit planted 83 trees on private property last year.
Other achievements for Tree Eastie last year included watering 200 trees and recruiting 70 new volunteers, including high school and college students. “We had a program this past year with BU (Boston University); the students came out, and they provided a lot of support for our organization,” said Masterson.
Finally, Masterson mentioned that the non-profit was able to plant 26 trees at Constitution Beach, and there are plans to plant at least 40 there this year.
“We’ve been trying to plant trees at Constitution Beach unsuccessfully for the past four years, but we finally found the right person at DCR (Department of Conservation and Recreation),” he said.
After reviewing the highlights of 2024, Masterson spoke a bit about the organization’s street tree program.
“We have worked out with the city— if you want a tree planted in front of your house, you’ve got to call 311. Sometimes that takes a year to 18 months to get that tree planted,” said Masterson.
“We’re short-circuiting or short-cutting the process now by collecting signatures from people that want a tree planted in front of their house. We submit this to the city, the city will come out, and they’ll mark the sidewalks.”
Masterson indicated that in addition to the 499 trees planted by Tree Eastie, the city has planted 124 street trees in front of people’s houses.
He also said planting trees in front of churches and properties owned by NOAH (Neighborhood of Affordable Housing) had been successful, and there are plans to plant on properties owned by the East Boston CDC.
Tree Eastie is also working with developers to get trees planted as part of their projects. “We’ll work with them to figure out ways to be able to and encourage them to make a tree pit part of their plan—for them, it’s a rounding error,” said Masterson.
Masterson discussed the organization’s plans for this year, specifically maintenance. He said Tree Eastie would fertilize and mulch trees regardless of whether the organization planted them.
There are also plans to maintain park trees, and Masterson mentioned that they spent money last month on maintenance at the Bennington Street Cemetery.
Tree Eastie plans to educate residents about the benefits of trees and work with more organizations.
Further, Tree Eastie will, as previously mentioned, plant 40 trees at Constitution Beach, 10 at Bennington Street Cemetery, 5-7 in Central Square, 20 along the walking path through Memorial Park that leads to Airport Station, and at least 50 on private properties.
Visit Tree Eastie’s website at https://www.treeeastie.org/ for more information and to get involved. The next HVNA meeting is scheduled for April 7.