Special to the Times-Free Press
There very well could be a drought this summer that will kill thousands of dollar’s worth of trees around the area and force communities to spend money and time for decades to make up for the loss. Winthrop’s town department of public works has one watering truck and sometimes employees available to fill it, drive it around and water public trees. But not always because unpredictable emergencies arrive to demand their time. At best two workers can water four trees in an hour. The town has thousands of trees. In a town-wide drought DPW workers cannot keep up and trees will die. That is why Winthrop needs a citizen army of tree waterers ready to go when we have two weeks of no rain.
Any amount of water to any small street trees will help. (the smaller, younger trees may not be established so are more vulnerable to die of thirst) What you can do is carry water or a hose to street trees nearest you. The trees belong to you. Carry a bucket, watering can and add as much water as you can allow to soak into the ground or fill the watering bag.
Tree Warden, Tom Derderian says that Winthrop is facing a slow crisis in maintaining and expanding our tree canopy. Many big, old trees planted on streets as much a 100 years ago are reaching the end of their lifetimes. When one of those venerable trees with a trunk diameter of two feet is replaced by a new tree with a trunk diameter of two inches it will take close to 30 years of that tree to growth to spread shade anywhere near the original tree. This year and in recent years more weight, diameter, leaf cover has had to be removed than is replace by the same number of new plantings. So far this year we have purchased and planted about 50 trees. But all of those combined add up to compare to only four of the ancient remove trees. The town plans to plant another batch of trees in the fall but the budget for purchasing them is limited. That is why the tree warden is soliciting donations to purchase and plant more. To make a donation and request the species and place you would like contact the tree warden at [email protected].
Keep your eyes on the skies and if rain does not come, grab your water can or hose because it will be up to you to save the trees.