During summer months, Chelsea Square serves as a welcoming gathering space.
The area features a fountain and pleasant pedestrian pathways.
Quaint brick sidewalks and the nearby police headquarters across the street create an exceptionally secure environment.
Yet the square had lacked sufficient tree coverage until recently.
On Friday, June 20, volunteers from the Chelsea Collaborative’s Green Space Youth Crew and the TD Bank Green Streets Team partnered with the state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and the City of Chelsea to plant 20 trees throughout Chelsea Square in a single day.
DCR Forest Service employee Hilary Parasmo remarked, “We have a lot of work to do today and we’re excited to kick off the Chelsea Greening the Gateways pilot program here today.”
As the first Gateway City selected for state funding and support, Chelsea launched its tree-planting initiative in Chelsea Square on Friday, though plantings had already begun that spring. The previous Friday’s plantings, featuring Japanese Lilac and Redbud trees, were supported by NStar funding.
The project encompasses planting trees along streets and in public spaces, while also recruiting private property owners to participate in plantings on their land.
According to Roseanne Bongiovanni of the Chelsea Collaborative, the Green Space ECO Youth Crew’s summer program will concentrate on encouraging private property owners to permit tree plantings. The crew plans an aggressive outreach effort soon to secure permissions for additional trees.
Chelsea Tree Board Chair Andy DeSantis noted that grants including the EOEA Energy Initiative and the TD Bank/Arbor Day Foundation Green Streets program are allowing the City of Chelsea to plant more than 300 street trees this calendar year—double the previous year’s total and triple any earlier year’s planting. To date, 140 street trees have been planted throughout Chelsea by the City and the DCR Forestry Division this year.
An additional up to 1,700 trees will be planted on private properties by the DCR Forestry Division through the remainder of Spring, continuing into Fall 2014 and into Spring 2015.