BELFAST — Learn more about a new initiative to expand and care for Belfast’s treasured tree canopy in a free Belfast Garden Club program at noon on Tuesday, Oct. 17.
In the one-hour program, a panel, including City Councilor Mike Hurley, founder of the 40-year-old Belfast tree-planting program called GreenStreets, will discuss the drive to update the Belfast tree ordinance, including establishing a tree commission, qualifications for a tree warden, and a master plan for the maintenance and protection of Belfast’s tree canopy.
Other members of the panel include Carol Herwig, an arborist with extensive experience working with groups, Lexa Clifford, Belfast Garden Club president, and Barbara Bell, who recently completed a term on Belfast’s Climate Crisis Committee.
The program will be presented in the Abbott Room at the Belfast Free Library, 106 High Street. Those who wish to join from home may attend via Zoom. For more information and to register, visit belfastgardenclub.org.
The new initiatives build on the work begun in the late 1970s by Hurley’s GreenStreets program. Most of Belfast’s elms had died by that time and many had not been replaced, or, if replaced, not suitably. Hurley and his commando band of volunteers undertook to fill gaps with a wider variety of trees and were successful in planting hundreds in public parks and along the city’s thoroughfares. Still, other city priorities limited their progress.
Today, in light of both climate change concerns and a healthier Belfast economy, GreenStreets, the Belfast Garden Club, and cadre of local residents, are collaborating to give Belfast’s tree canopy more attention. Caring for the canopy warrants a more systematic approach, better data, and greater planning, they say. Together these groups seek to involve the whole community in the effort to save, nurture and plant trees in Belfast.
“Social scientists have found that people rate communities more or less comfortable and hospitable on the basis of how many trees line their streets or populate their parks,” Clifford says. “It’s no stretch then to say caring for trees is a form of community building.”
Founded in 1928, the Belfast Garden Club promotes the knowledge and love of gardening, the protection of native flora and fauna, and the importance of civic beautification.
