However, both organisations agree that maintainance works at Boston's largest park needs to begin immediately and should be a priority.

The FPC has released its Woodland Management Plan in which it predicts that "the age and condition of the tree canopy in the park indicate that most of the large trees that define the park’s woodlands will be gone within thirty years.”  

According to the report, after over a 125 years, the woodlands which cover 200 acres of the over 500-acre park, has not fully regenerated itself, hindered in part by heavy use and the establishment of invasive species.

Antonia Pollak, Parks Department Commissioner said the Parks Department has not signed onto the coalition’s plan yet but acknowledges the FPC “may be right.”

Deforestation Watch is pleased to note that the coalition and parks department will be working together to undertake a demonstration project in the 21-acre Long Crouch section of the park to determine the best way to rejuvenate the park's ecosystem.

Lanae Handy, FPC Restoration Project Manager said, “We are testing different techniques and strategies to see what’s the best way to go about revitalizing the entire park.”

The city may support a future draft of the restoration plan following discussions at the end of the demonstration project, Pollak said.

According to FPC estimates, Franklin Park needs about US$1.5 million in maintenance work. Handy cautioned that the current estimate is rough and unforeseeable factors, like a repeat of this summer’s drought, could cause complications.

At the same time, she said, the FCP is working to cut costs as much as possible, mainly by rallying volunteers to help with soil work, clearing invasive species and tree planting.  These three efforts, along with maintenance of existing trees, which must be handled by professionals, are the major chores that must be undertaken to insure the continued vitality of the forests, Handy said.

The degree to which FPC will be able to rely on volunteers, however, depends on exactly what the best practices for the restoration turn out to be, Handy said.

The project will also help determine things like how nefarious invasives will respond to changes in soil acidity and whether it is wiser to start invasive removal or soil work first, Handy said.

Pointing out that large sections of the park rest on shallow sub-layers of puddingstone, Pollak said it may even turn out to be more worthwhile to rethink which sections of the park should be targeted for reforestation.

“There are a lot of pieces,” Pollak said.

In the meantime, Long Crouch, a heavily used section of the park, is receiving a facelift.  The area around the dens has been cleared, Handy said. Over the entire swath, tree work—pruning limbs lost to decay rot and fungus—will begin over the winter, invasives will be cleared out by the end of the summer, and planting will begin in the fall, she said.

The restoration plan also includes calls for the remodeling of the section of the park’s cross-country track running through Long Crouch. “I think everything besides the path will be restored by the end of 2008,” Handy said. “And, depending on funding, that will be completed or at least will have begun by then.”

According to the draft restoration plan, the Long Crouch demonstration will cost a little over $90,000.

The city and the coalition are sharing the costs of the demonstration project, Pollak said.

One of the goals of the plan, Handy said, is to help the Parks Department, “better maintain the park. And part of it is coming up with some of these prohibitions on things they are doing that are damaging the woodlands.”

“We will look at all the recommendations in the plan and access them in terms of practicality,” Pollak said.   THE END.