For nearly twenty years, Concord Public Works (CPW) and the Public Works Commission (PWC) have partnered with homeowners and property owners  to plant trees on private property within the twenty foot setback area adjacent to the Town’s right-of-way. These trees are planted at no direct cost to the resident other than a commitment by the property owner to take responsibility for watering and maintaining the tree.  Throughout the years, this has proven to be an effective way to promote environmental stewardship and increase climate resiliency by improving the Town’s urban forest; something that is also an important part of Concord’s mature landscape and historic character.  By utilizing the setback area, CPW is able to plant the right tree in the right place further ensuring that the tree has a greater chance of surviving the planting and that it will thrive in the future. 

Recently, we’ve been working diligently to streamline the management and processing of requests for this increasingly popular program while utilizing the information collected during the recent town wide tree inventory project.   Click Here to view the Tree Inventory Management Plan and from that webpage you’re able to follow a link to TreeKeeper, where you’ll find information about each tree in the Town’s right-of-way which has been assessed and inventoried, including a photo of each tree. 

We currently have a waiting list for participation in this program.  Please contact Concord Public Works at 978-318-3220 for information. One of the steps we’ve taken to increase the user friendliness of this program is to limit the types of species of trees we will be offering to plant each season.  We are currently assembling a list of trees available for planting in the Fall of 2019 and Spring of 2020, and will post it here when available.  The list is organized by small, medium, and large size trees.  When selecting a tree we ask that people take into consideration the size the tree will grow to when it matures, the proximity to buildings, and if there are any overhead or underground utilities that will interfere with the tree.

We plan to review the trees available for planting at the beginning of each year and the tree selection list may change.  We do this to help increase species diversity throughout the Town of Concord.