10
THE DAVEY BULLETIN
|
January/February 2019
The Hartney Greymont Needham office
performs work on the Wellesley Station
Oak Tree annually. Some of the services they
provide include dormant pruning, cabling,
bracing and deep root watering.
PRESERVING WELLESLEY'S HISTORIC OAK
For over 20 years, the Hartney
Greymont Needham office has
provided its services to maintain the
health of the Wellesley Station Oak
Tree in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
The roughly 130-year-old black oak
tree is believed to be one of the oldest
trees in Wellesley. The oak sits on
parkland next to the Wellesley Square
post office. The care for the tree
began with the predecessor of
Kevin Narbonne, senior arborist
representative. The Wellesley Natural
Resources Commission needed
someone who could prune the tree
to mitigate some of its defects,
mostly structural.
"This very old tree started to have
structural cracks that needed cabling,
bracing and more technical care,"
Narbonne said. "We, as a donation
to the community, started pruning
and subsequently managing the soil
around the tree."
This spring, the Needham office
provided care for the tree. The tree
struggles with soil compaction issues
due to its centralized location. The
crew mulched under the dripline of
the tree to add a buffer. They also did
some weeding and removed some
other small trees attempting to occupy
the area.
"I actually took some oak seedlings
from the tree and saved some of
those. It's a pretty voracious nut
spreader," Narbonne said. "The town
donated them to some of the people
MISSION
in the community who wanted
offspring of the tree."
Narbonne said it's rewarding to
preserve a piece of history and help
the community.
"I think it's important for any arborist
within the Davey umbrella of
companies to maintain trees and
do public outreach," Narbonne said.
"Some towns have more money than
others to maintain keystone trees,
especially ones of good heritage, so
it's important to give back and help
maintain these trees."
