NORTH PROVIDENCE – The town’s bid to bring renewed priority to maintaining and growing its tree cover is happening on several fronts, including pending adoption of a new tree ordinance.
The Planning Board last week considered a recommendation to the Town Council on adopting the ordinance to qualify the town to become a Tree City USA. They held off on a vote, pushing the matter to their Oct. 14 meeting.
Tim Thorp, the town’s tree warden for almost a year, told the board the current ordinance written in 1995 is mostly outdated, and the highest fine in it for someone violating it is $100.
Thorp said the ordinance will address some of the issues brought up during other matters at that meeting, and also better delineate a separation between town trees and trees on private property.
A section toward the back establishes potential funds for owners of “significant trees.”
As an example, Thorp mentioned the recent loss of a huge, beautiful beech tree that came down on High Service Avenue a month ago. Removing the remnants of that tree, which had been the fourth largest tree in the state before it fell, cost close to $10,000 to remove, said Thorp, and there was no money available to help the homeowner.
He said he would love to see the ordinance set aside funds for homeowners with significant trees, which could be taken from fines generated for violations.
Residents this week, meanwhile, are calling on officials to do a better job of holding developers accountable on removal of trees for projects such as on Baird Avenue.
Thorp and Planning Director Brent Wiegand said they worked with the Green Infrastructure Coalition on the revised language, funded through af deal grant that helps towns develop ordinances to fund tree planting and to restore their urban tree canopies.
Chairperson David Parente said it seems the town is trying to catch up after being behind in this area, which they said is true.
Several areas of the ordinance are very consistent with other cities and towns, said Thorp, as all are written to comply with Rhode Island laws.
All of the local rules related to what people can and can’t do with trees under power lines are now moot, said Thorp, as Rhode Island Energy now has rights to those trees as established by law.
The ordinance doesn’t hinder any private property owner from doing what they want with their tree, and but it does take steps to preserve the town’s larger and significant trees.
Attorney Angelica Bovis asked if the rules are just for trees on public property, and Thorp responded that there are som subsections about trees on private property, including a voluntary significant tree registry. That type of registry is found in some other towns, Thorp said, but isn’t everywhere.
North Providence hasn’t been a Tree City USA community in about a decade, and Thorp said that though applications are open now, they can’t become until until next November. This ordinance, an upcoming proclamation, and and a few other items will make the town ready for that designation, he said, and the ordinance needs to be approved by the end of the year.
The Planning Board continued the matter to the Oct. 14 meeting so they can consider a recommendation to the council then on adoption of a new tree ordinance to qualify the town for Tree City USA status.
The town was awarded a pair of grants in the spring for municipal forestry development and tree plantings, including to help fund expanded work of the tree warden. Grants Manager Sheri Lupoli at the time credited the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management’s forestry division and the Green Infrastructure Coalition for helping them establish a Tree Canopy Council and to collect data on the town’s trees as they formed an action plan.
