Old Growth, New Problems: The Battle Over Tree-Cutting In Cambridge

Fall colors on Brookline Street in Cambridge, Mass. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

Lifelong Cambridge resident Peter Cohen loves trees. He grew up climbing and admiring them, and as an adult and homeowner, he puts a lot of thought and care into the ones in his yard. And Cohen has a big yard by Cambridge standards.

Walking around his property near Porter Square, Cohen describes how things have changed in the 25 years since he moved here with his wife and kids.

There’s the once-small elm tree in his front yard that has grown so big, the fence between it and the street now bows out. There’s a stand of small pine trees that he planted after his hemlocks were killed by invasive beetles. And there’s the million-dollar condos a developer built next door.

“This thing next to us is very big, it’s very close to our property line and it casts big shadows where we used to have a lot of light,” he says.

The condos also have windows that look straight into his backyard. There’s a Norway maple tree between the two buildings, but because it’s so tall, the trunk is the only thing blocking the view. Cohen says he’d like to cut down this tree down and plant a row of shorter evergreen trees to get some privacy.

“The alternative is to basically put an 8-foot fence, which wouldn’t be very nice for them to look at, and wouldn’t be very nice for us to look out,” he says. “But now I have a problem. There’s an ordinance that says I can’t take down the Norway maple.”

Read the rest of this story at WBUR’s website.