Cambridge Residents Oppose Construction in Silver Maple Forest

Cambridge residents came out to a Cambridge City Council meeting Monday evening to support a resolution to protect the Silver Maple Forest, located on the outskirts of North Cambridge. Citizens expressed opposition to the potential construction of a 300-unit apartment complex where the forest now stands and urged the council to take action to preserve the existing forestland.

The resolution, which was co-authored by Councilors Marc C. McGovern, Dennis J. Carlone, and Nadeem A. Mazen, condemned the usage of the forestland and elicited overwhelming support from the public audience.

The Silver Maple Forest is a 15-acre wooded upland situated at the intersection of the cities of Cambridge, Arlington, and Belmont. A few steps from the MBTA Alewife station, the forest sits atop a Federal Emergency Management Agency-designated floodplain and has long been acknowledged as a line of defense against flooding in the Cambridge and greater Boston areas. According to the Coalition to Preserve the Belmont Uplands’ website, the Silver Maple Forest is also home to more than 45 species of birds and 20 species of mammals.

Ellen Mass, a member of the Friends of Alewife Reservation who spoke during the “public comment” section of the meeting, noted that for hundreds of years, the deep roots of the maples have absorbed water and prevented excess flooding.

Susan Ringler, a Cambridge resident, also argued for the importance of the trees in the 15-acre plot as a protection against flooding.

“Our Silver Maples are worth gold in their floodplains,” Ringler said. “Climate change is upon us and flooding does not stop at municipal boundaries.”

Despite previous efforts from the council to protect forests within Cambridge borders, development plans have continued for the Silver Maple Forest apartment complex. Several trees were razed Monday morning, which some Cambridge residents said was upsetting to them and made them to wonder if anything more could be done to stop the deforestation.

Carol O’Hare, who planted an evergreen in the Silver Maple Forest as a child, said she was saddened by the removal of the trees.

“This morning as I grieved with others over the destruction of the Silver Maple Forest by backhoes and chainsaws, I thought…of how our state could not save it,” O’Hare said.

A handful of residents who spoke at the Council meeting had been arrested earlier in the day for protesting the deforestation. One of them, Judy Johnson, was greeted by loud applause when she addressed the councilors.

“Can I stand? Because I have been sitting in a jail cell all day,” she said, to the applause of many in the room.

“You can’t live without the trees,” Johnson later added. “If the trees go, the animals go, the floods come.”

—Staff writer Arjun S. Byju can be reached at arjun.byju@thecrimson.com.