This site is rarely updated. benbrophy.com is more up-to-date. - Ben
Pin Oaks on Mass Ave
I just saw an email going around about the Cambridge Public Works project to improve Mass Ave from the river to the beginning of Central Square.
The email was about trees. They plan to rip out the trees the trees now in place (this being Cambridge the email noted that healthy trees will be replanted, so we need not worry about cruelty to flora) and replace them by planting 100 Pin Oak trees. Why Pin Oak's I wonder? They get really big, so maybe that would be nice, but I'd be worried about them getting crowded against the buildings. And all those acorns. And you have to hope they aren't using southern saplings (the quote below is from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources
In urban areas, Pin Oak suffers from a quirk of commercial nursery production, in that most trees originate from southern sources with very acidic soils, and when transplanted to neutral or alkaline soils, suffer tremendously from leaf chlorosis with a resulting loss of vigor. The lesson still not learned is to use local seed sources for growing trees, when there will be a problem of any type.
I just hope these trees are tough. I know from my own childhood that life on Mass Ave can be evil.