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Town Talk: The Official Podcast of Summerville, SC
Episode 42 - Justin Carpenter, Town Arborist
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Urban Forest Master Plan: https://www.summervillesc.gov/592/Urban-Forest-Master-Plan
Justin's email: jcarpenter@summervillesc.gov
And that's a wrap on today's Town Talk! Remember, Summerville - stay connected, stay informed, and let's keep our town thriving together. Until next time, this is Chris Makowski (cmakowski@summervillesc.gov), signing off from the heart of Summerville. Take care!
Welcome to Town Talk, the official podcast of Somerville, south Carolina, where we bring you the latest news and incredible guests here in Somerville. And today I am super excited to have Justin Carpenter with us. He is our town arborist. Excited to have justin uh carpenter with us. He is our town arborist and I know our.
Speaker 1We are the uh, you know the tree city, the flower town in the pines. You know we are known for our trees, so I thought it makes complete sense to bring justin on here. And actually, uh, the idea to bring you on came from amy evans. I wasn't even thinking about it for some odd reason, but our parks and rec director is like you gotta got to bring Justin on. I'm like you know what You're right. But, justin, thank you so much for joining us today. Yeah, thank you, chris. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I'm excited to get to know more about you. Have the community get to know more about you, but also about the role as an arborist here at the town. But to start, give us a little background on yourself. Where did you come from? When did you start your role? Why did you choose Somerville? All that fun stuff.
Speaker 2Yeah, so I moved to Somerville about 15 years ago from New Hampshire. No major reason why. Like most people, I was sick of winter and looking forward to that warmer weather in South Carolina and this time of year is when it really pays off to be here. So I met my wife the first week I was here, married two years later. First week, first week, yeah, first week I was here. How lucky that kind of anchored me to this area?
Speaker 2Yeah, of course, and you know I had an appreciation for it anyway, so it wasn't hard to stay here. So that's what brought me down here and that's what kept me here.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah. So before you joined the town, what were you doing? So?
Speaker 2before this I worked in the forestry industry in New Hampshire. Okay, I've had a long career kind of different avenues of the forestry industry, logging, tree care. I'm a second generation arborist. Most of my family is in timber operations forestry logging operations up north.
Speaker 2So I've kind of always had it in my blood, this industry. There was a saying that was told to me once when I was a kid, and it was once you get wood chips in your blood, it's kind of hard to get them out, and I feel like that's kind of been true with my career how unique.
Speaker 1So what? What is a logging operation?
Speaker 2yeah, so it would be. Any timber harvesting where the the removal of trees and the sale of okay, sale of timber okay, okay, um, you know that's.
Speaker 1You go from that to you know, here in Somerville, where we really do protect our trees, and so what led you to down the path of becoming an arborist? And I know you just became a master arborist, right? Yeah, that's correct.
Speaker 2So I've been an arborist for probably been about 12 years now. I want to say yeah, and then and then, most recently, a master arborist. That was really just a growing appreciation for trees yeah as I got older, I I I was more geared towards the preservation of trees. You know, I I I cared more about maintaining and managing, managing them as opposed to, you know, necessarily removing them um removing use case yeah, right.
Speaker 2So really it was just it's really just an appreciation for trees that led me down this road okay, um, and so you did just become a master arborist.
Speaker 1What did that entail? Because that's that's a big deal. I know we push it out on our on our socials and newsletter and everything like that, but can you go into a little bit more detail what that whole process was like?
Speaker 2Yeah, so that requires. One of the requirements is to be a certified arborist for eight years. It requires experience as well as education to qualify to be a master arborist and then it requires a pretty lengthy test that is very specific with questions and what they're looking for for.
Speaker 1So you have to meet those requirements and pass that test and and that's what allows you to become a master arborist and there isn't a whole lot in the state of south carolina, I think there's a couple, um, and you're one of them, and we have them here in somerville right, I love it, I love it so, and it makes sense, though, because somerville is, um, we do, we do pride ourselves we were the first, uh, local government to have a ordinance in place for, you know, cutting down a tree right now, and and that has stuck with us to this day um, but, um, our, our tree canopy, our tree life and the trees in general are a big topic of conversation within town and our community, and so I want to dig into your role and then what the kind of the future looks like for our tree canopy and what we're doing to preserve our tree canopy here. But, justin, so, talking about as an arborist for the town of Som, somerville, what does your typical day look like?
Speaker 2Yeah, so I mean, I don't know if there's.
Speaker 2Every day is a little different it's kind of a hybrid position, where you're in the field, you're in the office, depending on what the workload is. I mean to break it down simply, you know. Maybe 30 to 40 percent tree removal application review, that would be site assessment, tree inspection. Maybe 30 to 40 percent tree removal application review, that would be site assessment, tree inspection. Maybe 30 to 40% plan review, that would be more in the office, combined with site assessment, kind of looking at plans on the computer how to work around trees. You know, depending on what that application is, there's always some special projects that are going on. Yeah, you know, you know I'm always one phone call away from having to go look at or deal with something else as well.
Speaker 1So that's a simple breakdown of what my day kind of looks like so if a tree uh is being requested to remove, you are automatically um assigned to uh kind of checking that out and and making sure that it's either passing or declining that right.
Speaker 2Right, yeah, so the tree ordinance in Somerville in order to remove a tree over eight inches, it requires a permit. Over 16 inches is considered grand and what I look for are any signs of death, disease or decline or any evidence of structural impact. So that's what's stated in the ordinance and that's what my inspection is based off of okay, and so if it doesn't have any decline or disease, then it's usually.
Speaker 2No, we're not cutting down this tree yeah, and somerville does have somewhat of a strict tree ordinance which I think is progressive and great um yeah you know, it helps in the preservation of our, of our urban forest, of our trees uh but we also have an appeals process and that's our tree protection board, and it was five members. Now it's seven members yeah very knowledgeable.
Speaker 2Um, things that pass through there they're. They're doing a a real deep dive, a full assessment of the tree and making sure that it's it's not causing a hardship or actually going to impact a property owner. So they're looking at everything and making a judgment based on that and, like I said, they're very knowledgeable.
Speaker 1Of course, and so I want to pick your brain a little bit because it's not really on the script, but I'm genuinely curious, talking about the disease and, uh, you know, death of tree, and basically what does that entail when you go into that process going to look at a tree? How do you, how do you find that out? What do you? What are your little, uh, tools that you use? Go into give us the the dirty of your job absolutely so.
Speaker 2I mean most it's. It's a level one assessment, which which means it's from the ground, it's visual. I do use some hand tools, but what I do is I inspect the tree from all sides. I look for any abnormalities, things we call cankers or cavities. Anything that looks like it will structurally compromise the tree and be a potential for failure or a hazard. So I look for those things. I also look for any signs of disease, you know, and not all disease is equal. Some aren't quite as threatening as others If it's something that is a serious cause for concern or will actually cause the tree to go into decline. You know, I kind of look at it differently, you know, I I definitely don't want to put any risk on the property owner. Um, yeah, so I do do try to do a pretty comprehensive inspection of the tree. Um, so, really, just any abnormalities, anything that looks, uh, like it could be a potential for a hazard, so some I know.
Speaker 1Um, prior to my becoming into this role, I had a basic understanding of what you do and the trees and kind of the science behind it, but one thing that I kept learning about is the diseases that impact trees. I feel like a lot of people don't even know that trees can quote unquote get sick. Yeah, right and so can you dig into that a little bit? What are some of these diseases that um the trees can get, and what does it do to our, our trees?
Speaker 2yeah, sure, so um, I mean trees. They can get a systemic disease, which is is, you know, trees are biological, they're susceptible to disease and things, just like we are. I can go through some that are more serious than others. You know, there's bacterial diseases, there's fungal diseases, and they'll affect the tree differently Cankers, fungal mats, things like that that you know can cause the tree to decline, and we're looking at a timeline too. We're trying to. When I look at a tree, I'm trying to look at. You know what's the potential for failure in?
Speaker 1three years.
Speaker 2I mean, it kind of depends on the tree, so different things like that. There's some superficial diseases, there's a bacterial wetwood you know, I'm just kind of throwing out examples here which is serious, so it's all based on the severity of that disease is how I look at and gauge whether the tree is, you know, potentially compromised or not and so I have to ask for our tree canopy here in somerville.
Speaker 1Do you see it as a relatively healthy you know tree town as a whole?
Speaker 2yeah, I mean as a whole. It is urban trees are are subject to a lot more stresses than trees that you'll see in a natural stand in a forested area you, you know they're dealing with pollution, limited growing spaces.
Speaker 2There's a number of different you know issues that they have to deal with. So they usually have a shorter lifespan and they're. You know there's more. You'll see a little more diseases issues, structural issues, but as a whole I think it is a relatively healthy urban forest. You know tree removal. I see a lot of the. I do a lot of assessments on the tree removal applications that come in. So I see a lot more of the trees that are in decline. Um, and, and you know, for the most part, a lot of those tree removal applications that do come in, they do have a valid cause, cause for concern, um, and and we kind of address that case by case, yeah, of course, and so, um, I know you just joined and I'm sure you are familiar with different tree canopies and different local municipalities and other areas around the state.
Speaker 1In your professional opinion, where do you think we sit in town when it comes to our tree canopy? Because the reason I ask this and this is why I really enjoy the podcast, because we can have real good conversations like this I hear a lot of folks talk about cutting down the trees. They don't want trees to get cut down, that we basically don't have any more trees left and everything like that, and I feel that we do really care about our trees and we really take it uh, take that thought into consideration about whatever, um, you know, land is going to be used like what tree. So, in your professional opinion, where, how is our tree canopy compared to maybe others in the state?
Speaker 2yeah, I think it's worth bringing up the urban forest master plan that was created in 2023 um that really outlined the state of our, our canopy, our urban forest, um and and kind of what the losses were, what potential goals, potential recommendations to try to maintain and mitigate that loss. You know, at least keep it to a minimal. Any development is a process. It all goes through the same processes. We try to we really prioritize retaining trees, retaining large stands of trees, especially specimen trees, higher quality trees. You know it all goes through a review process that can be lengthy and we really try to. You know that, combined with site visits, we really try to get developers even residential building permits you know, commercial building permits, any, any permit that deals with trees on that site is something that we really try to work with the contractor, the developer, to retain and take into consideration those existing trees.
Speaker 1Yeah, but not only that though. I know and I'm speaking probably ahead because I know when we have to remove a tree. I know you're a huge advocate of replacing that tree and planting a tree. Can you dig into that a little bit? I know, for Arbor Day we planted a tree at one of our parks, but how important is it about replanting trees as well and planting trees?
Speaker 2Yeah, absolutely so. Yeah, we try to enforce mitigation where it's feasible and the way the ordinance states. It is any tree, any significant tree 8 to 16 inches up to 50% mitigation could be required. Any tree over 16 inches grand tree up to 50 mitigation could be required. Uh, any tree over 16 inches grand tree up to 100 could be required. Um, sometimes that's adjusted at a staff level or by the board based on lot, size and conditions. Um, but we really try to. We really try to prioritize tree planting, just to maintain that canopy cover that somerville does have.
Speaker 1Even if we can't grow that canopy, we hope to at least maintain the canopy that we do have, of course of course I want to switch gears a little bit and talk about maybe some tree maintenance and stuff folks can do to help maintain the quality of life for their trees on their property. So what are some tips and tricks you have for some of our community members on maintaining a quality of life for some of these trees that they have on their property?
Speaker 2Yeah, so I mean all trees require. There's some level of maintenance involved. With trees that are on your property, you know, that could be as simple as an inspection walking outside as a property owner doing an inspection on a tree seeing if there's anything abnormal. If it requires further inspection, I would say when hiring contractors to do work on your trees, look for something somewhat reputable. If you could get an ISA certified arborist on staff, that would definitely be the way to go. They do have a lot of knowledge and are current with standards for pruning, removals, trimming, anything involving trees. So that would be one piece of advice that I would give is maybe not all contractors are equal as far as tree care.
Speaker 1Okay, that's as tree care. Okay, that's good to know. And what do they need?
Speaker 2So if they are looking for a contractor, what's the title they need to look for? Yeah, ideally it would be nice if they had an ISA certified arborist on staff.
Speaker 1Okay, so note that down. Make sure, if you are looking for tree help, that's a good way to know that you know it's going to be well taken care of. If it's getting trimmed right, all right, like that um is there. Do you see any common um misconceptions or myths um regarding tree care or the maintenance of trees? Uh, here in town?
Speaker 2yeah, um, you know there's. There's something I deal with quite a bit and that's, uh, that's potential risk and perceived risk. Um, and there is a difference there. Potential risk is if that tree actually is posing a risk, um, for failure, whether it's going to do damage to your property, to your house, to to a person, or whether that's just a you're just perceiving that it could. I hear a lot that pine trees, you know, even I look out the window. I see my pine trees sway in the wind and I understand that can be a scary thing to see, but it's also worth noting that that's, you know, a dampening mechanism for the wind. You know, as that wind load hits it, if it didn't sway it would be snapping, you know. So, just different things like that, keeping people informed and trying to talk through some of the issues that they have is has seemed to help with me awesome.
Speaker 1That's good to know. So, like if you see your tree, you're like oh, this is a weak tree, like something's wrong with it because it said swing. No, it's just that's it. That's its mechanism for honestly being safe right, exactly, and it can look scary and yeah, I understand that especially in storm season.
Speaker 1Right, um, speaking of that, storm season, um, you know, is probably a very busy time for you, um, because you, we, you know, when the high winds, it causes trees to fall. Um, what's that look like for you? Um, especially during that time of the year where, um, it's kind of unpredictable and there's a storm comes through and there's trees all over the place that have fallen down yeah, I mean it's busy, it looks busy yeah, yeah but, um, yeah, we try to move through things as much as possible In situations like that, more emergency situations it's definitely prioritizing high-risk situations first and then kind of working through the workload as it goes.
Speaker 1That's good. That's good. So I could see how it could get busy, though it depends on the storm too right. Some storms it doesn't cause much tree fall, but some might. Right, hopefully, fingers crossed, we don't. You know we don't knock on wood, but you know we do live in in in the storm, in the storm area.
Speaker 1That's right, it does happen um, so speaking on kind of the future um of our tree canopy, anderville as a whole, when it comes to our trees, how can, in your professional opinion, continue to improve and enhance our tree canopy and then also the quality of life of our tree canopy here in Somerville?
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean the, the tree canopy we do have in somerville definitely um adds to the town's charm. It adds to the community as a whole. You know, help shape this community um. So really we can all play some role in advocating for the town's trees, publicly or privately owned, whether that's attending town-sponsored events. Really there's just multiple options that people in the community can engage with that aspect of tree care.
Speaker 1So you guys do host some events you know for our community members to go and attend and even learn about our tree canopy or tree maintenance, anything like that.
Speaker 2Yeah, we don't have anything scheduled yet this year, but it is early in the year. I'm sure some stuff will be scheduled as the year progresses and that will be made known publicly. So we definitely encourage any event that's put on. We encourage people to attend and, and you know, I can always be reached to. Um. People can call me if they want to talk about a tree or a certain situation, you know they can always reach out to me and I'd be happy to have a conversation about it that's awesome.
Speaker 1Um, and I'll be sure um is okay. I share your email with the committee. Yeah, absolutely um, I'll be sure to add the email um in the bio for y'all. Um, but speaking that, that leads me to a question again that's kind of just came on my head um, how do you balance the need of, I guess, the growth of somerville, right are the natural growth of folks coming into our town first, you know, preserving our natural beauty. How do you balance that?
Speaker 2yeah, right, um, and that goes back to that whole plan review process, the development process, you know, getting them to prioritize trees, maintain trees, retain trees, um, and also mitigation where trees are coming out, trees are getting put back in, you know, at the same level or as much as possible to try to maintain that canopy. Yeah, and I agree that is an issue that is very relevant and something that we need to always consider. Would you consider that one of your biggest challenges in this role? I would, yeah, I would say that is a big challenge.
Speaker 1Yeah, do you have something that we need to always consider? Would you consider that one of your biggest challenges in this role? I would, yeah. I would say that is a big challenge. Yeah. Do you have any other kind of the big challenges that you face within this role?
Speaker 2uh, you know it kind of engaging with the community to understand why the tree ordinance is in place and to that's a good one, yeah you know, really for for the community to see the true benefits of trees. Um, I think that's an important, you know, part of my job as well as is to education of of trees, yeah, and what they're doing for you specifically so you have, you have a camera in front of you.
Speaker 1Uh, what are our trees doing for our community every day?
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean beyond the aesthetic value that they offer, the environmental values. We all learned about photosynthesis in grade school, where they're providing it's true, I remember that.
Speaker 1I remember those classes Removing carbon dioxide, providing clean oxygen.
Speaker 2You know that alone is huge, that's a huge thing. But beyond that they're thing. But beyond that, they're offsetting carbon, they're offsetting storm water runoff. Uh, you know, there's just multiple benefits that trees provide.
Speaker 1Um, some you can see, some you can't but yeah, but they're there, yeah, and I mean there's really, when you outweigh the benefits and the negatives, I mean it's kind of lopsided, it is.
Speaker 2It really is lopsided.
Speaker 1Not only that, our trees house homes for animals too, right, right, right. How do you balance that? Because do you see animals and insects and anything like that, living in trees that are, you know, maybe dying and and diseased?
Speaker 2yeah, I mean that's. That's a great place for an animal to live is a dying with a cavity, I mean it's.
Speaker 1Does that go into your decision making as well?
Speaker 2if there's a tree that's not posing a hazard to a house, a person's structure, and you can leave it for natural habitat. That would be the ideal situation, if if that's the situation, sure, we could discuss that option. If it's, if it's a dead tree that's next to somebody's house or could potentially cause harm to a person, to a person, yeah, you know that that kind of supersedes any other situations. Um, so that that's kind of how it's, how it's viewed, yeah it's.
Speaker 1It brings up a uh, really kind of traumatic, uh but funny uh story I have from my past. So I was in boy scouts and, um, uh, I was at summer camp, I think it was. I had to be like 11 at this time I was still relatively younger in my in my boy scout's journey and I was at summer camp and I was actually in my tent, uh, in the middle of night, all of a sudden I heard this big pop and I was like well, like it woke us all up and all of a sudden there's a tree on top of me and, yeah, so a tree fell on my tent at boy scout camp and I don't know, and like I'll tell you, it was a pretty big tree, so the way it hit is it hit right. And, um, luckily I didn't have a tent mate. Um, I was in the tent by myself. It hit the other side of the tent and so my side just basically went up and so the tree missed me, but I was like this close, so it was a really scary situation.
Speaker 1Sounds like you got lucky. I feel like I did. But that just brings up a story like why it's important to have someone like you on staff who can inspect these trees and be like, yeah, this one is a little dangerous, this one potentially could fall in the next storm, right, and so you know. I think there's some comfort for our community knowing that we have someone's staff who can go check out their tree and be like, yeah, no, this one, this one honestly should hold its own.
Speaker 1You know, sometimes storms surprise us and sometimes you know you can't accurately predict everything. But right you can, probably. You, I feel you you would agree with that, right you could probably I would agree with that, you know, and we look at everything objectively of course.
Speaker 1Of course, um and I know we talked about, um, different things that we're going to put in the place, or maybe some events you're going to put on this year. I think it'd be um, I'm really committed to working with you and how we can better um, you know, educate our community on our tree canopy, and so, um, I'm going to say this this is the first time he's hearing this and this just came to my head, but I definitely want to work with you and probably enhancing our public information on our tree canopy when it comes to, maybe, website content, maybe making it a little bit more unique, interactive and I say we'll set up some time and we'll work together, because I know that's a goal of yours and I would love to help you achieve that goal.
Speaker 1Yeah, that sounds great, and I think our community would really appreciate that. I think, um, we can find some really cool and unique ways to make some interactive stuff on our website as well, so, um, I'm gonna just put that out there.
Speaker 2It's the first time he's hearing this, yeah, so, uh, stay tuned, and I and I think it's important to uh, you know, I don't know how many people have actually had a chance to look at the urban forest master plan, but it's a great document it really is it's worth looking through.
Future of Urban Tree Canopy
Speaker 1Yeah, we pushed it out. We pushed it out last year, but, um, I didn't see much community interaction with it and I was kind of surprised by that. To be honest with you, it's on our website, but I think maybe we do another push on on that as well, because I mean, it's a really great document. I'll have it in the bio here you guys can go check it out, but it's a really great document. Um, now I kind of want to, um, you know, take a step back again and just talk about a little bit more about you, um, and just kind of some fun stuff, um, relative to who you are and also kind of relates to your role. Um, I have to ask this I have this on the list and but I had to ask this what is your favorite tree?
Speaker 2so it would be the tree that we planted at the arbor day uh celebration in december. So it's, it's the american elm the american elm, the american elm tree.
Speaker 2Uh, you know, and that's my favorite tree, just you look at old pictures of american cities and it just lined line city. It was a beautifully formed tree, you know long, arching branches. It just played such a big part in American history. And you know the town I grew up in. There was one left that everything was ravaged by Dutch elm. But there was one tree, one big elm tree left and it was just as you enter into into the town that I grew up in it and I always that's awesome I always appreciated that tree.
Speaker 1I always think of that tree when I when I think that's your favorite tree and that that's it and we play and we we have one. I love that. That's so cool. Do you have a least favorite tree?
Speaker 2uh, some of the more invasive tree. I mean I think it's a lot of people's least favorite tree, but the bradford pear, okay, um, which was sold years ago as a fast-growing shade tree and then it has weak attachments on a long enough timeline. It always splits it's. It's consistently splitting, um. So it's a poor quality tree, it's invasive, it's. It's something that's approved for removal, you know, upon confirmation of species. So really it is yeah.
Speaker 1And so is there any other trees that maybe we could give a little list to the community saying, hey, don't buy this tree.
Speaker 2I mean, I don't think they sell those anymore. I think they're banned. I would hope so. We also look for Chinese tallow trees, often called popcorn trees.
Speaker 1Popcorn trees?
Speaker 2Yeah, those are invasive If they're in your yard, they're approved upon confirmation. There's a couple other species that are invasive that are also approved if confirmed.
Speaker 1And do we have anywhere, maybe the does the document master or urban master? What is it?
Speaker 2the urban, urban forest master plan master plan.
Speaker 1Does that have a list of um?
Speaker 2I'm not sure if that specifically calls out trees um that are invasive.
Speaker 1I don't think there's any list in there that does that maybe, maybe we put a list together and we'll push it out. That'd be really cool.
Speaker 1I think we can do something like that too honestly, um, I don't want, I don't want to plant an invasive tree and then be that person you know I have justin coming after me like, hey, chris, come on. Um. So, speaking of kind of um, keep on the light side. Um, somerville does have different um sections of town that are have its different kind of, uh, tree canopy vibe and and um, the species, which part of Somerville is your favorite when it comes to, maybe, the, the tree canopy?
Speaker 2yeah, uh, you know, I walk my dogs regularly through azalea park and I? I just appreciate that you know, I know that's a kind of a basic answer, but I do really appreciate azalea park and walking through there there's some large bald cypress that they have in the ponds, even some larger mature sweet gums that you know are just kind of unique for that park setting and it's it's a beautiful place to to walk through.
Speaker 1Yeah, no, that's cool and, um, you know, azalea park is really just beautiful and the tree canopy. And then also, you know, the month that we have azaleas a year, right, it's still no, it's just it's. It's a beautiful, beautiful time of year. It's coming up. Actually, march, april is around that time. We're getting close. We're getting close. Um, so, speaking, uh, you know, kind of bring this train home a little bit. Um, I want to just uh kind of pick your brain about the, the future of, uh, you know, the tree, um, species, canopy, the quality of life, somerville, I know we touched base on it a little bit, but what are some things that we're doing in-house to kind of plan for that future? Is it the urban forest master plan that really kind of helps guide you? What? What's something that guides you to kind of look at maybe the, the next, not only five years, but 20 years down the line, right?
Speaker 2so a big thing that we're doing that was brought up in the urban forest master plan was a tree inventory, and that tree inventory is proposed to start next week actually. Oh, wow, okay. So it'll be phase one of a tree inventory where we collect uh data of trees and and I believe we're doing azalea, wasa, masaw, gahagan and kind of this town hall complex area for this first phase um and that'll be a collection of of trees that we have a gis platform um collected as an inventory. You know it'll include all biometrics and species size um. It'll be great, you know it's.
Speaker 2I think it's a great first step because you you manage what you know, you have it. You know you have to know what you have in order to manage it. So that'll kind of give us an idea of what we're looking at and hopefully, down the road we can expand on that and it'll also bring us from at this point in time. We're kind of, when dealing with tree related issues, it's more of a reactive situation where an issue is brought to our attention and then we respond accordingly, whereas if we have a tree inventory and some sort of management plan accompanying that tree inventory, we can move more to a proactive approach where we're setting up trimming cycles.
Speaker 1We're looking at trees.
Speaker 2We can prioritize trees based on you know their situation, their current condition. So I just think it's a great forward step. You know, in Somerville's urban forest.
Speaker 1Yeah, that'd be really cool. I can't wait for that. I really can't wait for that. Well, that said, Justin, do you have any other final thoughts before we go our separate ways for the episode?
Speaker 2You know what was I going to say? We are the flower town in the pines. We we do. We have had a tree ordinance. For what is it? 175?
Speaker 1years, for for a long time, you know it's again.
Speaker 2The trees help shape our community and it's they're. They're worth appreciating and they're worth advocating for.
Speaker 1So I guess I would leave people with that message yeah, and I appreciate that, and justin, we're very fortunate to have you and one of the only couple Master Arborists here in the state. We are very lucky to have Justin on board and I think since you joined, we've seen just such incredible things. So thank you for everything that you do for our community and for the town. I look forward to working with you on bettering, enhancing our public information and helping the community better understand some of the tree things, maybe looking at some unique ways and more interactive, fun ways for some website content and maybe some social media content and stuff like this. But I think the podcast was a good first start. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2I look forward to working with you.
Speaker 1Yeah, well, I appreciate it. Well, until next time. Uh, thank you guys, so much for joining the podcast and uh appreciate it. Thank you, thank you.
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