LYNN — The Lynn Department of Public Works (DPW) worked with National Grid and Asplundh Tree Expert, LLC on Wednesday to trim about 40 trees throughout the Lynn Commons.
This was a volunteer project done by the DPW and Asplundh, the company National Grid hires to trim trees around power lines.
“It’s mainly for safety,” said Nathaniel Cotton, the general foreperson at Asplundh. “We’re getting the dead wood out and then raising the canopy up a little bit so people aren’t bumping into them and so it’s easier to walk around.”
The project was an addition to the Arbor Day celebration that was held at Harrington Elementary School last week. According to DPW Tree Warden Jason Dumas, trimming the trees will improve the safety of the commons and the health of the trees.
Dumas worked with Asplundh on different areas of the commons, splitting the trees up between the workers on-site. Dumas said the trees in the commons, which are mostly lindens, should be trimmed every 10 years to keep them healthy, but this is the first time the city has done a tree restoration project like this.
“If I can, I want to keep things like this going,” Dumas said. “People like to see it.”
When the branches are trimmed off the trees, Asplundh employee Chris MacDonald said they are then put into a chip truck and made into mulch and chips to be sold.
Lynn resident Jimmy Rowan said he loves to go to the commons for peace of mind, and added that it’s nice to see people putting the work in to keep it nice.
“It’s a good idea,” he said. “They should check to see what could potentially fall. I’ve seen branches falling, so it’s good to have some inspection.”
Asplundh employee Sean Tully said he enjoys doing days of community service like this.
“Just picking these branches up a bit so kids can’t jump up and latch onto them,” Tully said. “It’s kind of a ‘safety prune’ type of thing.”
Cotton said this kind of work is also important because it maintains green space.
“There’s a lot of new research coming out now about how important that is with urban cooling and energy saving,” he said. “We’re really glad that National Grid asked us to do this with them.”
Cotton said he and his employees are loving the fact that they don’t have to work around high voltage wires for a day, while also giving something back to the community.
Nash Degarmo, a North Shore forest tree supervisor for National Grid, said he thought this project was a good opportunity to volunteer some time, especially with Arbor Day coming up on April 30.
“The guys like to do some tree work that doesn’t involve power lines,” he said. “They look forward to days like this.”
Degarmo said National Grid is also planning to plant about eight trees on Howard Street in the next couple of weeks to replace the ones that had to be taken down.
Allysha Dunnigan can be reached at [email protected]
