Nestled in the lower grounds of Nahanton Park, the Newton Tree Conservancy (NTC) had set up a fenced lot—a nursery for tree saplings to be adopted by Newton residents on Saturday.
The NTC is a nonprofit organization established in 2008 with the intention to restore and protect Newton’s Urban Forest. The city has a Division of Urban Forestry, but keeping up with tree preservation and street-tree planting is a larger endeavor, according to the organization.
“[The Urban Forestry Department’s] still stretched to keep up,” said Ted Chapman, a trained landscape designer who has been working in NTC for four years. “The Newton Tree Conservancy stepped in to try to support them, notably with planting in neighborhoods.”
Chapman, a big, soft-spoken man, wore an orange fleece set on one shoulder as the heat rose in the park.
“I help with the nursery,” Chapman said. “And I organize tree plantings in neighborhoods. We also prune the trees that we’ve planted for the last 20 years.”
For Chapman, gardening started as a family endeavor.
“My grandmother went to the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture in Groton, Massachusetts,” he said. “So, it’s in my genes, so to say.”
Around 10:35 in the morning, Chapman got busy. Newton residents started streaming through the lot, excitedly chatting up the washed-out lime T-shirt-wearing volunteers about the remaining species of saplings. Most were oaks.
Gail and Luis Sanchez, long-time Newton couple, were delighted by the giveaway, despite arriving too late for the species they wanted for their yard.
“All the Eastern redbuds and the smaller trees … they’re gone,” Luis said.
Luis Sanchez is a psychiatrist and Harvard Medical School graduate, who wore a sleeveless New England Medical Center vest and thin sunglasses. Gail Sanchez, who looked amusedly at her husband, is the President of the Massachusetts Medical Society, re-elected in May this year.
The couple had heard about the event from a neighborhood friend who owned a garden in the lower parts of Nahanton Park.
“I’m a composter,” Luis said. “I’ve always been a gardener. I garden my yard. That’s the story.”
Newton resident Susan Worcester, in line behind the Sanchez’s, was going through a laminated pamphlet on the species of trees offered by the NTC. She was determined to find the specific acorn species of her recently deceased three-year-old oakling.
“I’ve been searching for years to find another beautiful little tree,” Worcester said. “So, I go around every fall to find the acorn.”
Worcester’s enthusiasm was palpable and seemed to permeate the entire sapling giveaway.
“This is the holy grail,” Worcester said. “This is the holy acorn!”
Worcester leaned toward the oaks along the road. Wearing a tweedy vest and carrying a thin plastic bag, she drew up acorns, one by one, setting out to replace her beloved tree.
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