Street trees to get $70K in maintenance
Foundation grant matched by private donation
POTTSTOWN >> Borough street trees will enjoy $70,000 worth of maintenance and replacements at no cost to the taxpayers as the result of a unanimous vote by borough council.
The vote approved an offer by Chestnut Street resident Thomas Hylton, who applied for and obtained a $35,000 grant from the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation for the maintenance and replacement of trees.
The grant will be matched by a $35,000 contribution from Hylton and his wife Frances, who are once again donating their own money toward the maintenance of street trees.
Hylton, who also serves on the Pottstown Planning Commission and the Pottstown School Board, told council he will focus on trees on main thoroughfares like King Street, High Street and Hanover Street.
In the two previous years, the Hyltons have contributed $70,000 of their own money toward the maintenance and care of street trees in Pottstown, which includes paying to treat them against the invasive insect, the emerald ash borer. Hylton heads up the Pottstown Tree Funds, originally called Trees Inc.
It is a non-profit entity that in 2016 merged with Save Our Land, Save Our Towns, also founded by Hylton.
Since 1984, Trees Inc. has planted more than 1,900 new trees and 700 replacement trees; removed about 300 stumps; trimmed roughly 11,000 trees and remediated 431 sidewalks damaged by trees, all at a cost of about $1.1 million.
The Pottstown Tree Funds has taken up the upkeep of Pottstown’s street trees after council disbanded the shade tree commission Hylton headed nine years ago and ceased to contribute any funding toward the maintenance of those trees.
According to information posted on Pottstowntrees. org, a 2007 study by the U.S. Forest Service of street trees in New York City “found the city’s 600,000 street trees provided about $122 million in annual benefits in improved air quality, stormwater management, energy reduction by reducing the need for air conditioning, and increased property values. New York was receiving $5.60 in benefits for every dollar it was spending to plant and maintain its trees.”
As a result, then-mayor Michael Bloomberg set a goal of planting one million more trees in New York, a goal the city met two years early.
A similar survey by “Tree Pittsburgh using i-Tree concluded the city’s 30,000 street trees provide $2.5 million annually in benefits,” according to the website.
“In Pottstown, based on an updated inventory of our 3,116 street trees conducted last summer, i-Tree calculated the trees were providing more than $300,000 annually in environmental and economic benefits,” according to Pottstowntrees.org.
Earlier this month, a new report found that Philadelphia
has lost 6 percent of its tree cover, “over 1,000 football fields worth of tree cover over the last decade,” according to WHYY.
City officials have responded by undertaking an “urban forest” strategic planning process to increase Philadelphia’s tree cover over the next 10 years.