Berkshire Botanical Garden's Arborist Day Revitalizes Great Barrington River Walk
The walk is regularly maintained by the Land Conservancy and Greenagers, but volunteers don't often have the equipment or expertise to deal with large-scale clearing and pruning.
About 20 professional arborists from several local companies joined forces on Tuesday to remove trees and dead and overhanging branches along the half-mile walk, which follows the Housatonic River through downtown.
The volunteer effort is estimated to provide approximately $15,000 worth of tree care services, said Tom Ingersoll, one of the event's founders and a trustee of the Berkshire Botanical Garden.
Participating companies include Bartlett Tree Experts, Whalen Nursery, Ingersoll Land Care, Jed Shields, Fenton Brook Property Services, Kelley Brothers Tree Service, and Steinert Tree Service, he said.
The initiative was founded by Berkshire Botanical Garden's former Director of Horticulture Dorthe Hviid, along with arborists Ron Yaple, Ken Gooch, and Ingersoll.
"We started at the botanical garden in 2005 with the first Arborist Day designed to focus on the trees of the garden itself," Ingersoll said.
"Then we said to ourselves, 'This is so much fun. Let's have this be an annual event, and let's take it on the road, and let's go to other places in need, especially public spaces.' We put the word out and every year we get a different mix, and it's been really fun."
Now in its 21st year, Arborist Day is an annual tradition that brings professional tree care expertise to public spaces and nonprofit organizations throughout the Berkshires.
Ingersoll, who has served as a Berkshire Botanical Garden trustee for 13 years, said the organization's mission extends beyond its grounds through educational programs and community outreach efforts that encourage people to connect with nature.
While Berkshire Botanical Garden helps organize and promote the event, the participating companies donate their employees' time, equipment and expertise to complete the work at no cost, he said.
"We really want to identify more spaces where the public goes. We have a nomination process, so we receive ideas from municipalities, from school systems, from museum properties, not-for-profit groups, conservation groups," Ingersoll said.
From there, the initiative's committee selects locations based on nominations, aiming to serve different communities and organizations throughout Berkshire County.
The committee strives to vary both the locations and types of organizations it serves, from retirement homes to middle schools, to ensure the initiative benefits people from all walks of life, he said.
The event also returns to Berkshire Botanical Garden about every four years to provide professional tree maintenance, while other years focus on locations throughout the region, including The Mount, Construct's Pine Woods Condominiums, The Bidwell House, Monument Mountain High School, and more.
This year's effort is focused on the Great Barrington River Walk, a popular recreational destination that, according to the town's Open Space and Recreation Plan, attracts about 5,000 residents and tourists annually.
However, while visitors admire the natural surroundings, dead branches and structural weaknesses in the trees overhead can pose safety risks that are difficult for the untrained eye to recognize, particularly in the fall and winter, Ingersoll said.
"We're always thinking ahead as arborists about the architecture of trees ... These are wild trees, [so] it's a great opportunity to see how things grow in nature, and to try to take some corrective measures when we can," he said.
While the Great Barrington Land Conservancy and Greenagers maintain the River Walk, such as managing invasive species, certain tasks require specialized equipment and professional arboricultural expertise, Ingersoll said.
"That's where we come in, because we've got aerial lifts, bucket trucks, chippers, [and other equipment.] There's five or six climbers here today. We're getting up off of the ground with very specialized gear and specialized education to be able to prune and rig out," he said.
"We're doing a couple of removals today because [there are] some large standing dead trees that volunteers couldn't possibly handle."
The event brings together professionals from different companies specializing in tree planting, climbing, aerial lift operations, pruning and ground support, Ingersoll said.
"So, when we come together for something like a day of service, it's really fun to see these different professional cultures and teams but we come together sort of under this umbrella of Arbor culture," Ingersoll said.
"And arbor culture is the professional care of trees, and we have this shared language and this passion for what we do, and it's really fun to see people rubbing elbows and talk about it."
The arborists' pruning efforts were intended not only to improve pedestrian safety but also to promote healthy tree structure and long-term growth, he said.
"When trees are out in the open, they grow kind of sideways because they love light — they're feasting on light, and that's what they want. So, it becomes our job to train them and try to get them to grow straight and tall and strong," Ingersoll said.
The River Walk features a diverse mix of native and nonnative tree species, including cottonwood, sugar maple, ash, red maple, American elm and red oak, along with invasive Norway maples and ornamental species such as the Japanese katsura tree.
Ingersoll emphasized the importance of maintaining a diverse ecosystem of large shade trees, smaller trees and native shrubs, noting that the River Walk's restoration efforts focus on understory plantings such as viburnum, witch hazel, winterberry and spicebush to support biodiversity.
One of the most rewarding aspects of being an arborist is the opportunity to work alongside nature and contribute to the vital role trees play in sustaining the environment, he said.
He described trees as "clean air machines" that absorb carbon dioxide, release oxygen, store carbon, and provide food and habitat for wildlife.
While working along the River Walk, arborists experience the ecosystem firsthand, witnessing its blue jays, squirrels, chipmunks, and other wildlife, while playing a small role in maintaining it, Ingersoll said.
"It's really fun to kind of be part of it and have our little influence over it," he said, recalling a message from the late biologist and plant pathologist Alex Shigo at a conference he attended.
"We were sitting in a room where he was giving a conference, and he said, 'You sitting here in this room have the most important profession of the future because you are the caretakers of the clean air machines.'"
Tags: botanical garden, landscaping, river walk, trees,
