20 Trees In Copley Square Trimmed Down Because Of Diseases
BOSTON (CBS) - Since Tuesday, the tops of 20 trees have come down in Copley Square.
Read: City Details Tree Plan (.pdf)
"It obviously makes the park look not as nice. However, maybe it's something that needs to be done," said tourist Guy Baker, as he took a stroll through the park.
City arborists say the London Plane trees in the square are riddled with four different diseases.
Fungal infections killed almost a third of the trees, making it necessary to cut them down before the disease spread to the others.
"Plus, this isn't a great area for growing with all the traffic and foot traffic. It ended up being a combination of all those things that killed these trees," said city arborist Greg Mosman.
Mosman headed up a public meeting last week to alert residents to the work that would happen this week. Signs are also posted on the tree trunks to help answer questions.
"This is a drastic change, and you're going to get a lot of questions about it, so we want to be out ahead of it to keep the hysteria down," said Mosman.
The City of Boston will spend about $30,000 replacing the trees, and that doesn't include labor. It will still be another several weeks before the new trees get planted.
Once the staff gets started, it will take about a week to replace the soil and plant the new trees.
