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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!
The Role of Town Arborist
Speaker 1Welcome 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 .
Enhancing Urban Tree Canopy Maintenance
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 ?
Balancing Growth and Tree Preservation
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 .
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
Future of Urban Tree Canopy
Speaker 1. 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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