Elm trees expand shrinking shade canopy

By Kate AbbottPrint Story | Email Story
Pat Agar and Gregory Costello, plant an elm tree.(Photo By Kate Abbott)
GREAT BARRINGTON — The town recently lost an entire corridor of trees along four blocks of parking lots behind Main Street. They died under the weight of that expanse of asphalt, Tom Zetterstrom, founding director of Elm Watch, said last week. In an effort to cool down this blacktop heat sink and restore some of the town’s tree canopy, a group of local organizations and businesses are turning to an old acquaintance in a new form of disease-resistant American elm. Elms once provided 60 percent of the town’s tree canopy, before Dutch Elm disease decimated them in mid-20th century, Zetterstrom said. Elm Watch launched its town center parking lot shade tree program Friday, Nov. 22, with Project Native, the Berkshire Natural Resources Council and local donors. It planted six young trees: three on Bridge St. by the new site of the Berkshire Co-op Market and three on Church St. along the Berkshire Bank parking lot. All are disease-resistant Princeton elms from FFA Nursery at Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Falls Village, Conn., Zetterstrom said. They are not hybrids. They are true American elms that the nurseries have bread for resistance to disease by natural selection. Elm Watch, a nonprofit organization based in Great Barrington, organized the event, and landscaper Webster-Ingersoll Inc. planted the trees. They and Elm Watch donated their time and offered the trees at cost, Zetterstrom said. These trees should last for at least 150 years, he said. “They just grow like crazy,” said Tom Ingersoll, a member of the Sheffield Tree Project and a landscaper with Webster-Ingersoll. The Sheffield Tree Project was organized to plant elms along the main roads in Sheffield and to teach the town how to protect them. Ingersoll hoped to interest residents of Great Barrington to form their own local tree board or committee, he said. These new trees will be as tall as the elm outside the Great Barrington Town Hall, the one on the cover of the town’s annual report, in 100 years. And they are hardy. They will grow well in six feet of soil between a road and a parking lot, he said. They are extremely tolerant of road salt, pollution, crowding of their roots and compacting of the soil around them. These trees will be living in tough conditions though. Snowplows, for instance, will inevitably pile snow against them; they have to clear the streets. It’s the job of the tree owners, of people passing by or of the Great Barrington tree board Ingersoll would like to form, to keep an eye on the saplings. It will take work and awareness, he said. Elm Watch and its partner organizations need to educate town boards, landscape architects, excavators and other contractors about taking care of trees and also to learn the parameters and people’s concerns about trees. People need to get invested, so if they go by and see the trees getting abused, they will take steps to remedy the situation. The more the community collectively owns these young elm trees, the better, he said. “That’s the root of community forestry — how to marry nature with society. We know trees provide oxygen. They save in heating and cooling bills and slow the wind. There’s a University of Chicago study that correlates how safe people feel with how many trees are planted in their community. It’s hard to quantify, but people feel better if there are trees around,” he said. “How do we inject some of those concepts into our society and reserve space for root systems?” This time around, Art Ames, manager of the Co-op, organized three donors to sponsor the young trees on Bridge Street — Toole Insurance Agency, Kwik Print and Southern Berkshire Web Pages. Jane Iredale and Berkshire Bank co-sponsored three on Church Street. “Tom approached me three months ago as I was looking for his phone number,” Ames said. The two elms along the parking lot and the third near the outside seating patio at the front of the building enhance the environment and community character of the store, he said. Project Native will join the collaboration and transform the land around the elms into an urban garden. They are also donating time and labor according to founder and director Raina Weber. They will begin planting in the second week of May. Project Native will bring in native plants at cost, she said. They are also hardy and tolerant of road salt, the disturbance of snowplows and other stressful conditions. She will plant New England asters, wild bee balm and woodland sunflower, bunchberry and wild geranium for the shade, blue-eyed grass and native honeysuckle vines, among others. Project Native grows more than 80 varieties of native perennials, including shrubs, trees and vines. It is in the process of negotiating a move to Sunways Farms, Route 41, when Berkshire Natural Resources buys the property. It is a program of the Railroad Street Youth Project and is sponsored by the Nature Conservancy, she said. For more information, visit www.elmwatch.org and www.sheffieldtreeproject.org.
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Friends of Great Barrington Libraries Holiday Book Sale

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The Friends of Great Barrington Libraries invite the community to shop their annual Holiday Good-as-New Book Sale, happening now through the end of the year at the Mason Library, 231 Main Street. 
 
With hundreds of curated gently used books to choose from—fiction, nonfiction, children's favorites, gift-quality selections, cookbooks, and more—it's the perfect local stop for holiday gifting.
 
This year's sale is an addition to the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce's Holiday Stroll on this Saturday, Dec. 13, 3–8 PM. Visitors can swing by the Mason Library for early parking, browse the sale until 3:00 PM, then meet Pete the Cat on the front lawn before heading downtown for the Stroll's shopping, music, and festive eats.
 
Can't make the Holiday Stroll? The book sale is open during regular Mason Library hours throughout December.
 
Proceeds support free library programming and events for all ages.
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