Volunteers Plant, Clean Up at Lone Tree Hill

By Radha Iyengar

The Belmont Citizens Forum (BCF), in conjunction with the Judy Record Conservation Fund, held its ninth annual Lone Tree Hill Volunteer Day on Saturday, April 22, an overcast and cool day.

Volunteers included Girl Scouts Troop 82027, employees of Cityside Subaru, M&T Bank,and the Sai Group, and residents of Belmont and the surrounding communities. Many hands made light work. 

 At the Pine Allee, efficient volunteers planted forty white pine saplings. The new plants replaced the Allee’s missing trees and some of the dead saplings from previous volunteer day plantings. At the adjacent meadow the volunteers planted slender leaf mountain mint, short toothed mountain mint, wild bergamot, white wood aster, blue wood aster, New England aster and butterfly weed — 70 plant plugs of each species. 

At the other end of the property, the volunteers collected twenty bags of trash, and garlic mustard. The trash included rusted metal sheets and an old bed frame. The volunteers also closed an unauthorized bike trail and dismantled an abandoned improvised house.

BCF is grateful to David Ropes, John Craig, and Sergio Tavares of Tree Specialists, Inc. for supervising the planting and to the Judy Record Conservation Fund for funding their ongoing work and purchasing the trees. And a big shout-out goes to Joe Hibbard for purchasing the native plants and marking the location for their planting ahead of the volunteer day, and to Joe and Jeff North for supervising the plantings. We thank Leonard Katz for supervising the removal of the garlic mustard and the closing the unauthorized bike trail, and Vincent Stanton for supervising the volunteers dismantling the improvised house. 

We would also like to thank Anne-Marie Lambert and Nancy Kougeas for signing-in and directing the volunteers at the bottom of Coal Road, Sandy Vorce for sending volunteers to help with the plantings, and Michael Santoro, DPW Highway Division manager, and his staff, for picking up the trash. It took a village to have a successful volunteer day.

Thank You to Our Sponsors

Platinum Level Sponsors

Cityside Subaru, M&T Bank, and Northland Residential

Gold Level Sponsors

Anne Mahon Realty, Belmont Land Trust, Rockland Trust Bank, and Watertown Savings Bank 

Silver Level Sponsors

Artefact Home and Garden, Cambridge Savings Bank and Renaissance Realty

Community Cosponsors

Belmont Helps, Clean Green Belmont, Girl Scouts Troop 82027, Land Management Committee for Lone Tree Hill, Mass Audubon Habitat Sanctuary, and Sustainable Belmont

Photos by Radha Iyengar, Jeanne Mooney, and Jeffrey North.

Radha Iyengar is treasurer of Belmont Citizens Forum and the organizer of BCF Volunteer Day.