Home

Urban Forestry

Program History

The Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust initiated an Urban Forestry Program in 1995 to meet the demands of the City's neighborhoods for tree planting and beautification. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts provided a $25,000 to launch the program with the planting of trees throughout the neighborhood of Centralville. We recommend this website to learn more about urban forestry Tales from Urban Forests: a radio series on how trees are impacting cities.

In 1996, the Trust initiated a program to plant 2000 trees by the year 2000 ("2000 for 2000") and conducted a city-wide survey of the City's public shade trees. One out of every five city trees was surveyed for species, size, and condition. This groundbreaking study revealed that the City's trees: lacked diversity, were in decline, and needed improved maintenance. This is a common story throughout Massachusetts. In addition to the City's 13,300 publicly owned shade trees, there were found to be 2,400 vacant sites for future tree planting, indicating plenty of need for the new 2000 for 2000 initiative. Finally, the value of the City's urban forest was determined to be $32 million. This represents an investment by the City that needs to be maintained.

With a strong base of support in the City's neighborhoods and armed with the knowledge from the tree survey, the Trust moved forward with enhancing the City's "green infrastructure," becoming a model for other cities to follow. In 1997, Lowell received its first designation as a Tree City USA. By the year 2000 the Trust had exceeded its goal of 2,000 newly planted trees, by planting or providing support for the planting of over 4,000 trees. Since then, our efforts have focused on providing technical assistance on tree projects throughout the City and in developing new policies related to the urban forest, such as the City's new tree ordinance (passed July 9, 2002).  TOP


Shade from our downtown trees makes a more enjoyable shopping experience, enticing people to stay downtown longer and spend more.

2009 Planting Projects

Annually, the Trust applies competitively for support for tree planting through the City's federally funded Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program. Funding through this program has provided trees throughout the city's neighborhoods, improving the streetscape, air quality, property values, and quality of life. Our projects for fiscal year 2009 included planting 152 trees at 21 locations, including:

  • Concord River Greenway - Davidson
  • Edwards Street Soccer Fields
  • Florence Road
  • Gage Field
  • Harmony Park - Revolving Museum
  • House of Hope
  • Hovey Park
  • Hovey Square
  • Moody Street playground
  • Nobis Engineering, Middlesex Street
  • Pine Street - Health Dept.
  • Rosemont St. Neighborhood
  • Shedd Park
  • Thorndike Street - Comfort Furniture

The Trust is fortunate to have received funding again from the City's CDBG program for the 2009-2010 fiscal year and we are now in the process of prioritizing projects for the spring of 2010. If you'd like to work with us on a tree planting project in your neighborhood, at a local school, or your favorite park, please contact us. We prioritize projects that provide broad public benefit over individual tree plantings on sidewalks. The demand for our assistance is too high to typically meet individual homeowner tree requests, but we do keep a running list of sites in case we get several on one street.  

Our Fall 2009 projects included:

  • Lowell Housing Authority - George Flanagan
  • Chestnut Square Apartments
  • Lowell Cemetery
  • Edson Cemetery

TOP