EAST PROVIDENCE — The City Council, while approving the Fiscal Year 2022-23 operating budget at its meeting last week on October 18, included a line-item to formally fill a long-inactive position of city forester.

The item, co-sponsored by Ward 3 member Nate Cahoon and Ward 1 representative/council president Bob Britto, added an appropriation of $45,264 for the purpose of the hire, which is mandated by city ordinance.

The forester job was included as part of the overall budget of $212,609,094 passed by the council on a 3-2 vote. Cahoon and Britto were joined by At-Large member Bob Rodericks in backing the total FY22-23 outlay.

Two members of East Providence Urban Forest group — Kristen Lund and Jenn Tierney, the latter who also serves on the city’s Tree Commission — spoke in support of the appropriation prior to a vote by the council. The EPFU is a volunteer group organized a few years ago to advocate, to create awareness and interest on the subject in the community.

Lund told the council East Providence was at a “crossroads” when it came to dealing with the acreage of trees scattered throughout the city, adding it “could not afford to not hire” a forester and that it was “absolutely essential” to do so.

Lund lauded the attempt of the administration of Mayor Bob DaSilva to plant more trees around East Providence. The endeavor has included projects to do so along Bullocks Point Avenue, at Willett Pond and the latest proposal to increase the greenery as part of the Kent Park rehabilitation plan.

Lund noted, however, “caring for our city trees does not stop when you plant them in the ground. It’s only the beginning of a long-term investment that much be maintained.”

Lund concluded her remarks, saying of the need for a forester, “It’s about numbers. It’s about science. It’s about protecting an investment. It’s literally about the air we breath.”

Both Lund and Tierney highlighted the precarious predicament of the Beech tree on the lawn at the Weaver Library on Grove Avenue as an example of the need to finally fill the dormant position.

Tierney said the historic tree is “dying from neglect” in part because there has been no forester to care for it, a situation likely to be repeated in other locations and neighborhoods throughout the city.

“One could say we loved it to death,” Tierney said of the Weaver Beech. “We stepped on it so much we compacted it into the ground.”

An arborist hired to advise the city recently said the Weaver Beech could possibly be dead in five years, according to Tierney, noting an Oak next to the U.S. Post Office also on Grove Avenue needs to be cut and properly maintained or it will potentially meet the same fate.

The forester would complete such tasks and also keep continuous track of East Providence’s trees like what was done last year for the first time likely in the city’s recent history.

In the summer of 2021, East Providence received a $4,875 Urban & Community Forestry Grant from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management to conduct a tree inventory. The money was used for among other things the purchase of specific software to log the trees.

The count done at that time was conducted by members of the Tree Commission, though that’s something Tierney said isn’t practical to continue in the future, adding, “We can’t rely on volunteers for what is mandated in an ordinance.”

Tierney also noted projects like the new athletic field and parking lot at Riverside Middle School could be enhanced in the future if a forester were in place.

She said some of the trees among the four acres toppled to create the space needed could possibly have been saved/transplanted or even kept in place at certain spots because losing all that shade has created a “heat island” at the location.

As defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “heat islands are urbanized areas that experience higher temperatures than outlying areas. Structures such as buildings, roads, and other infrastructure absorb and re-emit the sun's heat more than natural landscapes such as forests and water bodies.”

The forester, Tierney said, would have likely improved the RMS project as the role also includes considering the “entire ecosystem” of the city.

And unlike the overtaxed members of the city's Parks Division of the Public Works Department, Tierney said the forester would have a singular focus. It's a position, she added, that would take an “eagle eye look” while “constantly monitoring” East Providence’s tree stock.