OP-ED: The making of Davey Glen Park

Davey Glen Park was first envisioned over 25 years ago and was included in the 1992 Belmont Parks and Open Space Master plan. The land was set aside for a park as part of the Ross Woods Subdivision in 2000. Starting in 2007 and continuing until today, Belmont held over 40 public meetings, formed two ad hoc committees, sent out hundreds of mailers, and held many public Planning Commission, Parks and Recreation Commission and City Council meetings on Davey Glen Park. The public outreach effort has been enormous throughout the life of the project and over the course of many city councils. It has consistently been identified in all that time as a top parks and recreation priority for the city.

So it should come as no surprise to anyone involved in or following city politics that Davey Glen Park is happening, or rather, the only surprise should be that after all of these years the time has finally arrived to break ground and build us a park. To make room for the park, some trees needed to be removed and, to make the park safe for anyone using it, more trees needed to be removed. The eucalyptus trees in the open space that is to be Davey Glen Park were overgrown and unkept, they hadn’t been trained or maintained to grow into trees compatible with a park space because the land was left as open space until the park was ready to be built. Eucalyptus is also prone to dropping large branches when they don’t get enough water, a peculiarity known as “branch drop.”

Some challenge “branch drop” as a old wives tale, or as a pervasive myth told about eucalyptus trees, but that bit of botanical politics is beyond my knowledge. I only know that I feel the park is safer with the eucalyptus trees gone and appreciate the concern the city staff, commissions and councils have shown in my safety, the safety of my family and the safety of any who go to this park. It’s not worth the risk in human life to keep the trees around and they were so overgrown that they were beyond a stage where they could be reasonably trimmed and trained.

But Davey Glen Park wouldn’t be very Belmont-y without trees, would it? Trees are part of the soul of Belmont, their protection is even codified into law with Belmont’s tree ordinance requiring planting of replacement trees when trees are removed. Forty-nine trees are being removed to build the park, but 79 trees are being planted in return. More than the 1-to-1 ratio called for to replace removed eucalyptus trees. Twenty-five of these will be large trees designed to immediately create a mature canopy on the site and the types of trees chosen to provide color during different times of year that the eucalyptus trees did not. The diversity of trees will also help promote bird, insect and other wildlife diversity in a way that a grove of eucalyptus trees never could.

The only disappointment I’ve had with the project is that Davey Tree Company stopped work midway through and left enormous trunks sticking out of the ground. That was terrible looking and rightfully left a bad taste in people’s mouths ... or a metaphorical stick in their eye. I’ve been willing to overlook that issue because I’ve been told they were called away for emergency work and were not able to return as soon as they would have liked because of wetness at the site, but that they are or will be back at work and should be done soon, in time for the building of the park to begin in May.

Josh Powell is a software engineer and author living in Belmont.