LYNNFIELD — Jane Bandini, a member of the Tree Committee, approached the Conservation Commission to discuss the restoration of Gerry’s Cider Mill Park.
“It is at the point where there is absolutely nothing there,” Bandini said. “It really needs to be brought back the way it should be.”
She continued that one of the recommendations was to remove the invasive species, which has already been occurring in the area. Bandini said that one of the remaining invasives was the Norway maple, and that they could be completely removed, but the taller ones could also be cut and left standing to strengthen the ecosystem.
She continued that anything cut down should be left on the property because dead trees would benefit the environment.
“You have to start with making homes for insects, and that’s going to start with the dead tree,” she said.
Director of Planning and Conservation Emilie Cademartori pointed out that the street is lined with Norway maples.
“Taking them out here, I get it; it’s a little microcosm, but they line Maple Street, so they’re not going to come back,” Cademartori said.
Bandini noted that the maples don’t allow anything else to grow.
Mia Feng of Warner Larson Landscape Architects noted that if the town wished to contract out for the restoration, it could be around $35,000 for materials, labor, and contractors.
“We can also do it in another way where the town purchases the planting material and would only have somebody to do the labor, which would cut, I would say, at least $5,000… Jane was also looking at possibilities of organizing volunteering… But volunteering, I just want to add this as a consideration, would limit (the) size and scope of the work,” Feng said.
Bandini said they will be going before the Planning Board to ask that the trees be paid for through the tree fund.
Cademartori noted that there was a “decision tree” here.
“The Commission purchased this property, and we’ve been sort of pecking away at a little bit of restoration, a little bit of visual enhancements. In some cases, we took down two dead trees… It’s been a very slow work in progress,” she said.
Cademartori continued that the tree fund gives some funding for planting, two benches have been donated, and the concept of a pocket park is being built.
“If this were private property, we would tell someone they would have to file a request for determination because you’re doing a significant landscaping project next to the street,” Cademartori said.
She said the decision now is whether they are going ahead with a significant project.
She stated that, when approaching a project of this size, it has to be thought through, noting that the DPW might not be able to water all of these new plants. She pointed out that when things were planted at Rotary Park, many were not watered and died.
“We have to think about, when we engage a project of this scale, what’s going to happen,” she said. “I just want to think about the logistics. I love the idea.”
Conservation Chair Kirk Mansfield said that one of his questions is always: “How are we going to water all of these things?”
He asked if the stream located near the project could help with this, but it was agreed that it could be difficult to have volunteers hauling the water over.
Feng stated that right now they are looking at putting 25 trees on half of the area, and that is the bare minimum so far.
“My experience is if we want to do it with minimum water requirement… I would only do it toward the end of the season in the fall to do the planting,” Feng said.
Commission member Maria Fernandez-Donovan stated she thinks it needs to be a clean slate there, removing what’s left of the invasives (the Norway maples), to get natural light coming in.
“You need to plant enough trees when the Norways are gone… They’ve stopped our native plants from growing there for 50 years… You need to replace those,” Bandini said. “The initial 25 here will do very nicely… but there are more open areas there.”
Cademartori said that before decisions are made, a plan should be created to figure out the goal for the property and how much access the public will have.
