SHREWSBURY – Recently, town officials began receiving phone calls and emails from residents concerned about trees being tagged in Prospect Park.
At the Feb. 14 Board of Selectmen’s meeting, Town Manager Kevin Mizikar explained the tagging is related to the expansion project at the Mountain View / Prospect Park Cemetery. He also sought to allay fears that the tagging would lead to a massive clear-cutting of the trees in that area.
“This is part of the investigation into the feasibility and design of the expansion of the cemetery,” he said. “There are a lot of trees that are marked. Just because a tree is marked doesn’t mean it’s going to come down.”
In 2019, Town Meeting approved funds for a cemetery expansion concept plan.
In October, Town Meeting approved the design of the expansion. At the time, town officials said that Mountain View Cemetery was nearing capacity.
As of an Oct. 6 Select Board meeting, Director of Public Works Jeff Howland said there were 157 graves left to sell.
Howland said the proposal would be considered phase one of the design process.
The town released additional information about the current work.
According to the town, BSC Group and Dave Resource Group were surveying all of the trees in the area. The survey will determine the overall health of the tree, and it will help the designer make “informed decisions to retain or remove trees as part of the cemetery project.”
“This work includes number tagging of all trees 8” DBH or larger and trees or shrubs of significance that may be unique, threatened, endangered or invasive. The trees will be located by survey and have a Level 2 Basic Tree Risk Assessment done by certified arborists,” the town wrote.
The tree inventory from the project will be added online later at https://shrewsburyma.treekeepersoftware.com/index.cfm?deviceWidth=1920.
