Video: Tiny forests in Quincy

Tree warden Dan Cathcart and resident Maria Andrews gave fun and fascinating presentations on mini Miyawaki forests at the main library in June. Watch their talks below.

June 25 library talk: Tiny Forests’ Big Benefits

When Maria Andrews moved back to her childhood home in Quincy Point, her backyard was barren – “all grass and one rhododendron,” she jokes. But two years ago, she planted more than 150 bare-root trees, shrubs, and ground cover plants on her property in an effort to create a tiny, crowded oasis known as a Miyawaki forest.

“It’s completely different now. Most trees have doubled in size, and the birch have outdone themselves – I have a birch almost to my second story,” she says. “And the wildlife I see is amazing. I saw hummingbirds last year for the first time.”

Mini forests offer a huge “ecological bang for your buck,” agrees city tree warden Dan Cathcart, who is planning to install one near the Quincy Adams T station this fall. The competition for sunlight makes the densely planted trees grow three to four times as fast as trees planted on their own. “You get all the same ecological services, from heat relief to contaminant filtration, but it comes faster,” says Cathcart. “The collective benefit of the individual trees is far less than the benefit of a forest.”

Andrews and Cathcart will discuss Miyawaki forests at the main library (40 Washington Street) on Tuesday, June 25, at 7 pm. The free talk is co-hosted by the Thomas Crane Public Library and the Quincy Tree Alliance, a volunteer organization dedicated to protecting and expanding the city’s tree canopy. For more information, visit thomascranelibrary.org/events-calendar and quincytreealliance.com.

This Miyawaki forest was planted in Cambridge’s Danehy Park

Maria Andrews is a lifelong resident of Quincy. She volunteers at Quincy Animal Shelter and is a member of Quincy's Invasive Species Management Committee. Maria is an animal advocate and nature lover who spends most of her time hiking in the woods with her dog, Sophia. 

Dan Cathcart is the city’s tree warden. He won a federal grant for $750,000 to plant trees in environmental justice areas in Quincy and hopes to use about $300,000 of that to plant the City’s first mini “Miyawaki” forest near Quincy Adams T station.

Watch: Our library talk on trees

Dan Cathcart (City of Quincy Tree Warden), Heather Charles Lis (City of Quincy Environmental Scientist) and Ryan Fawcett (Urban Forester from the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation) discuss a variety of issues and topics regarding Quincy's trees.

Quincy’s next tree warden should be as qualified as our last

Have a question or concern about a tree on your street? See a city tree being cut down and wonder why? Until last week, you could have called Quincy’s first ever tree warden, Chris Hayward, for answers. And when you reached him, you would have encountered a knowledgeable, patient, and good-natured professional, an exemplary representative of the city.

Sadly for Quincy, Mr. Hayward was offered a job managing vegetation at an electric company, an offer he couldn’t afford to pass up. That leaves Quincy without a tree warden, a position it is required to fill, according to the state’s public shade tree law. We at the Quincy Tree Alliance want to make sure that the next tree warden has the expertise and experience, not to mention people skills, that Mr. Hayward did, and we hope the public will help us convince the city of the same.

Prior to November 2019, when Mr. Hayward started, Quincy did not have a dedicated arborist in charge of overseeing the city’s street trees, so residents’ calls about trees they were concerned about could go unanswered for months or years. Mr. Hayward started to organize what had been a haphazard process, assessing the health of trees he got calls about. If the trees posed a threat to the public, he would arrange for their removal, and if they didn’t, he would potentially add them to a list to be discussed in public tree hearings. He used the hearings as opportunities to educate residents about not only the issues affecting those specific trees but also general threats to trees, such as invasive insects. 

Mr. Hayward also began surveying the city’s estimated 20,000 trees. An accurate survey is crucial for gauging the health and diversity of our trees so that the city can prioritize their maintenance and the siting of new plantings. Mr. Hayward also worked closely with utility companies and other city departments to ensure that when they were going about their work, tree health was prioritized.

He also graciously shared his time and expertise in public talks hosted by the Quincy Tree Alliance and the Wollaston Garden Club, saying ahead of one such talk that a street tree is “just as important as a utility pole, as a fire hydrant, as a catch basin – even more important because it does more than just one thing.”

Quincy was extremely lucky to have a tree warden as knowledgeable and communicative as Mr. Hayward. With a degree in environmental geography, certification as an arborist, and years of experience managing urban forests and municipal conservation programs, Mr. Hayward could expertly assess a tree’s health, determine the best tree for a given location, and find solutions when utility or road work threatened healthy trees. His calm, clear-headed demeanor also helped him deal with pressure from residents who demanded that the city cut trees down as well as from those who wanted to save them whenever possible. 

The Quincy Tree Alliance is grateful for Mr. Hayward’s work over the past two-and-a-half years engaging with the public, managing the city's trees, and planning for the future. We encourage residents to reach out to their ward and at-large councilors, Commissioner of Natural Resources Dave Murphy, and Mayor Koch to ask that this important work continue with a new tree warden as qualified and responsive as Mr. Hayward was.

 – The Quincy Tree Alliance Board