SHADE TREE COMMISSION MINUTES
June 27th 2002

The meeting was called to order at 7:35 pm.
Present: Orsini, Baumley, Evans, Galdi, Marshall, Geoghegan, Gierlich
Absent: Jaquett, Hamilton

M. Orsini opened the meeting to discuss the status of the Arbor Day plantings. 5/6 trees in Flemer and most if not all at East Millstone are doing well. DeLar Park still has approximately 21 of 38 trees surviving, including the donated sweetgum, which is doing well. Almost all, if not all, of the white pines in DeLar are dead, which accounts for most of the dead trees. In the future, we should plant these seedlings in the farm, since those are doing well since Al has mulched and irrigated them.

J. Baumley suggested buying 6-8 feet branched trees from his supplier in Oregon. Not only are these trees more likely to survive, but they are more visible and planting 20-30 in a park will have more impact visually, and in a few years will be impressive. Cost is 25-30 dollars/tree. M. Orsini asked Jeff to look into this further since money exists to purchase these trees.

The Liberty Elms have been sprayed once with Isotox by M. Orsini to get rid of scale, will follow this week with second application. We should move to Al's farm as soon as possible. They still look OK. We started with approx. 70, sold 7, 3 look dead. Will not take long to dig in since they are already potted, and then we can plant most in the fall or next spring. They are tipped over a lot, since the roots were severed when the area was cleaned up for Earth Day, watering and water in general now a huge problem.

J. Baumley is donating 16 Dawn Redwoods for 9/11 memorial-2 for each school. We will need a person to cover each school for planting. J. Baumley suggested a personal meeting with school representative so that trees can be properly sited, and coordinate with staff to store trees/mulch the day before planting. M. Orsini will contact Bill Grippo to find the name of a contact person(s) for each school.

A copy of the Environmental Commission guidelines was distributed to each person at last meeting. These were discussed. Consensus that list needs to be expanded to include more varieties, some trees removed that are no longer available or less desirable than other varieties. J. Baumley will work on this list, especially expanding upon the lists of preferred trees now on our website. We will have further discussion at next meeting.

M. Orsini has composed and given to Sheila a "Letter of Intent" that she will use to solicit corporate donations for plantings in parks, etc. Suggested that local businesses and companies be the first contacted since they are vested in the community.
The meeting was opened to the public. There being no one from the public present, the meeting was closed to the public.
A motion to adjourn was moved and seconded. The meeting adjourned at 9:15 pm.