Cambridge Targets 35 Percent Tree Canopy as Urban Forest Plan Update Advances

CAMBRIDGE -- June 22, 2026, Cambridge committee reviews urban forest update targeting 35 percent citywide canopy coverage. The Health and Environment Committee, meeting with three of five members present, heard from DPW Commissioner Owen Nardone and consultant Eric Kramer of Reed Hilderbrand that citywide canopy cover has risen from 26.7 percent in 2009 to 30.5 percent in 2024, driven by more than 1,200 trees planted per year and a slowing rate of loss. Staff proposed raising the citywide canopy target from 30 to 35 percent and reducing the annual planting goal from 1,200 to 750 trees as remaining sites grow more constrained. Nearly 20 residents spoke, nearly all calling for stronger protections against development-driven loss, with multiple speakers describing excavation damage to neighbors' trees and proposing developer escrow accounts and DBH-based excavation triggers. City Solicitor Megan Beer cautioned that directly regulating obligations between two private property owners may exceed the council's authority, though the city retains clear power over public shade trees. Councillor Patty Nolan said the committee might send a communication inviting absent councillors to give feedback, and Councillor Cathie Zusy asked staff to try for a summer meeting to present final ordinance language.

Correction (Nov. 3, 2026): An earlier version of this story miscounted the second round of public speakers (there were nine) and credited several remarks to the wrong councillors: Councillor Cathie Zusy, not Councillor Patty Nolan, asked staff to aim for a summer meeting, and Nolan, not Zusy, said MIT needs to plant more trees. It also misdescribed Nolan's plan to seek feedback from other councillors and attributed a point about the residential fee exemption to the city solicitor rather than the DPW commissioner.