Without Tree Protections, Through Article 3/Option C, South Lincoln Risks Losing its Canopy
March 20, 2024
By Deb Howe, ISA-Certified Arborist

A major concern I have with the proposed HCA bylaw revisions is the absence of adequate protection for mature trees on parcels slated for rezoning. I have raised this issue with the Planning Board during the bylaw-revision process, certainly when there was adequate time to create protections. The Board listened to my concerns, and has promised to look into developing tree protections, but not until next year, after the Town’s final HCA proposal has been approved and submitted to the state.

Developers prefer to build on a “clean”, un-treed site, and often one of their first tasks after land acquisition is to take trees down, giving themselves a clean slate for excavation, equipment and materials storage, and construction tasks. That by-right approach has led to communities losing valuable tree cover and all the ecosystem benefits of individual trees and a cohesive community forest — that is, the public and private population of trees that in the aggregate provides benefit to whole communities — offered by those trees.

As development pressure at all scales mounts in Boston’s suburbs, more and more communities are developing tree protection bylaws to preserve at least some of the mature trees on sites being redeveloped. In the last few years Cambridge, Concord, Lexington, Westford, Wellesley, Brookline, and Newton have passed these bylaws — not to stop development, but to limit the loss of mature trees that provide carbon sequestration, cooling shade, oxygen, stormwater mitigation, vertebrate and invertebrate habitat, cover, and food in their communities. 

Tree protection measures usually involve the establishment of a Tree Yard, usually around a parcel’s perimeter, similar to building setbacks. Trees over a certain size - 6” caliper in some towns, 10” caliper in others — within that area must be protected. If development requires the removal of a protected mature tree, the owner must mitigate that loss either with payment into the town’s tree fund or with post-development planting of a trees comprising in aggregate the girth of the removed tree.

Again, the point of these protections is to preserve tree canopy that benefits all. As a corollary, it helps maintain a tree stand of varied ages, which is visually and ecologically beneficial to the property and the community.

Without this kind of protection for the HCA subdistricts, I am concerned that South Lincoln will — soon after an approved rezoning proposal goes to the state and before the Planning Board addresses the issue — lose an awful lot of its mature trees. Waiting until next year gives property owners who want to sell to developers, and developers themselves — a wide window in which to clear their sites of trees that in another year would be protected.

Weston Nurseries, which recently bought Stonegate Gardens on Rte. 117, just took down a number of mature trees that offered shade and screening and charm to the Stonegate properties. Take a look; you may understand my concerns about the absence of tree protection in the current HCA proposal. 

Our green infrastructure is an essential part of Lincoln’s identity. The Town’s good 2023 Climate Action Plan  addresses building use, vehicle use, alternative forms of energy for buildings and vehicles, and it mentions the importance of every piece of carbon sequestration in enhancing Lincoln’s resilience in the face of climate change (p. 48). 

Article 3/Option C, with its eyes-closed approach to the green infrastructure and climate resilience so critically important to us all, needs more focus on those issues. Inclusion of a tree protection bylaw would be a great place to start.

With this issue and other crucial environmental concerns nudging me,  I believe the current HCA proposal needs more refinement and attention before it’s fit for submittal to the state. I believe we can do better, and since we have the time to refine a really solid, inclusive proposal before December, we should do better. I will be voting No on the current HCA draft.