Media Advisory
Contact:
Gretchen
Folk, Earthworks/JP Trees Setback Tree Project Coordinator
Phone:
(617) 442-1059
Email: gretchen@earthworksboston.org
PLANTING
OF 100th TREE
Earthworks, JP Trees, and Jamaica Plain celebrate!
WHAT:
The Setback Tree Project of Jamaica Plain, a partnership between Earthworks and JP Tress, will plant its 100th tree this Wednesday, November 7 at 10 am. The planting will include three trees and will take place at the Nazareth Day Care Center at 19 St. Joseph Street in Jamaica Plain. The children of the day care will be digging the holes and learning about how to take care of their trees, which will be planted on the South side of their playground, providing them with shade, cleaner air, and homes for songbirds for years to come.
The Setback Tree Project of Jamaica Plain was inspired by JP Trees' who, after getting their start at a Neighbors for Neighbors Community Organizing Expo, did two plantings of free front-yard trees in 2006 that addeding about two dozen trees to JP's canopy. Gretchen Folk of Earthworks said, "Together the two organizations are working to replenish the urban forest, which has greatly diminished in recent years, mainly due to development of land and paving of greenspace for driveways." Melissa Moore, Co-coodinator of JP Trees says "As a solely volunteer-run grassroots group, I continue to be amazed by JP Trees' ongoing accomplishments. We have not only educated the community in a true greening effort, but have gained its engagement in an act to replenish the canopy of Jamaica Plain."
This 100th tree site is especially meaningful, since the playground has a view of a newly cleared lot on Custer Street. This site had many old shade trees until a month ago, when the sudden razing of these trees by the developers who purchased the land angered local residents. The Media and residents are strongly encouraged to celebrate the planting of the 100th tree.
WHO:
Gretchen
Folk, Earthworks/JP Trees Setback Tree Project Coordinator
Lauren
Ockeene, Founder of JP Trees
Melissa
Moore, Co-coordinator of JP Trees
Joseph Porcelli, Director of
Neighbors for Neighbors
State
Representatives Jeffrey Sanchez and Liz Malia and the Office of City Councilor John Tobin
Colleen Keller, Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Coordinator, Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services
Children from
Nazareth Day Care Center
Residents of Jamaica Plain
WHEN:
Wednesday, November 7 from 10 am to 11
am.
WHERE:
Nazareth Day Care Center at 19 St.
Joseph Street in Jamaica Plain
ABOUT EARTHWORKS AND JP TREES:
The Setback Tree Project of Jamaica Plain, a partnership between Earthworks and JP Treess, plants trees on private property within 20 feet of a road or sidewalk, where they will most directly benefit the public. The trees are free to people who agree to take care of them. The process for obtaining a tree starts with a volunteer from JP Trees doing a site evaluation of the yard. The project plants trees on private property, not sidewalks. "Even a small front yard provides a much more supportive environment for a tree than a city sidewalk,", says Lauren Ockene of JP Trees. An arborist determines five or six tree species that would be well suited to for the spot, depending on factors like light, overhead wires, and how much space the roots will have to grow. Once the steward has chosen the tree, trained volunteers plant it, for free. In exchange, the property owner must agree to take care of the tree, which basically means watering it in warm weather and spreading mulch around it in the fall. Earthworks will also track the tree's health for five years.
The project is funded with a $17,500 grant from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. It's considered a pilot program that may be continued and expanded to other neighborhoods and towns, Folk said. JP Trees believes that Boston needs to adopt legal protection for trees on private land, and is working on this idea through membership in the Boston Urban Forest Coalition. In the meantime, they are planting four to seven foot saplings to try to stem the tide of urban deforestation.
Both organizations are members of the Boston Urban Forestry Coalition, the organization through which the City of Boston plans to plant 100,000 trees in the next five years.
For
more information about JP Trees visit:
http://jptress.neighborsforneig
For
more information about Earthworks visit:
http://www.eathworksboston.org
ABOUT NEIGHBORS FOR NEIGHBORS:
Neighbors
for Neighbors brings neighbors together in person to satisfy the
human need to connect and care for one another. We do this so
neighbors may discover common interests and passions and organize
around them, transforming their great ideas into actions that
contribute to our community. We socialize. We organize. We make a
difference.
We socialize at Neighbors Socials where
neighbors connect. We organize by hosting Community Organizing Expos
where neighbors create social groups and community projects with
others who share similar interests and passions; engage with local
non-profits; and collaborate online at www.neighborsforneighbors.org.
All serve as mechanisms that keep neighbors together. We make a
difference by connecting and sustaining connections that contribute
to our community at events and our Social Clubs and Community
Projects like JP Trees.
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