![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/VJRRR5JNSFBGVCSJ37H3TG5QAM.jpg\")
David Jackson (pointing) looked up at a tree in Somerville.Joshua Miller\/Globe Staff<\/p>\nI\u2019m going out on a limb here: Walking around Somerville, most people don\u2019t spend as much time looking up as Vanessa Boukili, Malik Drayton, and David Jackson (above). On Monday morning, their eyes were constantly turned skyward. And it wasn\u2019t to ponder the heavens, but to divine an answer about something more rooted among us: They were assessing the health of city trees.<\/p>\n
Allow me to introduce Somerville\u2019s \u201cTree Amigos.\u201d Yes, that is what Somerville officialdom calls them. Boukili, Drayton, and Jackson are in charge of the thousands of trees on city land.<\/p>\n
Boukili, who has a PhD in plant ecology, is the chief tree-planter, figuring out what kinds should go where. Drayton has expertise in riverfront conservation and leads on proactive tree maintenance. And Jackson \u2014 a native Mainer who bopped around doing different things until he climbed a tree for work and, boom, he knew that was his calling \u2014 is the city\u2019s tree warden.<\/p>\n
They have super interesting gigs, let me tell ya.<\/p>\n
David Jackson (pointing) looked up at a tree in Somerville.Joshua Miller\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n
When I encountered Jackson on Monday, he was in Nathan Tufts Park talking at length with Drayton and a few guys from a tree service vendor. The topic was a red oak that stands not far from Powder House Square. And, in the eyes of the experts, it was quite unwell. <\/p>\n
Jackson was worried about decay. There was a cavity on the tree pretty low down on its trunk. He had spotted a massive mushroom bloom around that same tree in the fall, a secondary sign of trouble. The red oak, he decided, needed to go.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll trees have risk,\u201d Jackson told me Monday. \u201cWhen that risk level reaches a certain place, public safety demands we take them down.\u201d<\/p>\n
The potential danger of trees is surely top of mind after a child was killed by a falling one in Melrose last week. At the same time, no one wants to cut down trees unnecessarily. So how does his team figure the balance?<\/p>\n
\u201cTough dance,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n
As we made our way through the park, Jackson, who used to run his own tree business, had different solutions for different trees: an aerial inspection for a gigantic old oak, \u201cweight reduction\u201d on one side of another tree, \u201chospice pruning\u201d for a troubled one. Yes, \u201chospice pruning.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were more rudimentary outcomes, too: Drayton told me a tree near a T bus stop simply needed some branches trimmed.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/BPNIFY4NGSLHHXNIHOO574FT3I.jpg\")
A red oak set to be taken down (center left).Pat Greenhouse\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n
Massachusetts has had a tree warden law on the books since at least 1899<\/a>, making sure each municipality has someone in charge of \u201cthe care and control of all public shade trees in the town,\u201d as the old statute described it. There were and also are deputy tree wardens.<\/p>\n In Somerville, Drayton, who has worked for the city since 2019 and has a unique know-how about tree roots, is one of the deputies. He\u2019s also the city\u2019s conservation agent and an urban forestry planner. On Monday, he had an inventory of every tree on government property in Somerville (city, state, MBTA) open on his phone and was recording what seemed to be a huge volume of information. <\/p>\n Boukili, who did her doctoral research in the Costa Rican rainforest and was the primary author of the Somerville\u2019s 364-page urban forest management plan<\/a>, is the other deputy tree warden. She\u2019s also Somerville\u2019s senior urban forestry and landscape planner. In both Nathan Tufts Park, and later in Prospect Hill Park, she was going tree by tree on an iPad, looking up, looking down, looking up, looking down.<\/p>\n It was meticulous work, as they talked through the potential trouble of each tree. But they gave me some time to ask questions like how they engage with people who love a neighborhood tree that\u2019s getting chopped down.<\/p>\n Communication, Boukili said. \u201cWe would never remove a tree just because it\u2019s more convenient. We remove it when there\u2019s a danger and we can\u2019t reduce the danger enough to be safe.\u201d<\/p>\n Has the changing climate messed up their tree work? <\/p>\n \u201cSometimes we have a species that\u2019s not doing well one year, and it\u2019s hard to say if it\u2019s climate change or a pest,\u201d Boukili replied. Still, the city is moving toward planting more species that thrive in the mid-Atlantic climate, she said, since it won\u2019t be long before our climate is a lot like Baltimore\u2019s.<\/p>\n Jackson, who began as tree warden in July, underscored the difficulty: We\u2019re in this \u201cweird nebulous space\u201d in between different climates. Tree-planting requires looking some years into the future. So the team is trying to thread the needle. <\/p>\n I asked Boukili what brings her joy in the work.<\/p>\n \u201cI do all the tree planting. So I\u2019ve seen the trees that I planted nine years ago grow to be normal-size trees,\u201d she replied. \u201cIt\u2019s really exciting to get to see that over time.\u201d<\/p>\n She showed me a tulip tree she planted, full of new, green leaves. And then she pointed to a pin oak.<\/p>\n If everything goes according to plan, that oak will, decades from now, stand strong and tall in Prospect Hill Park, tended to by a new generation of Somerville tree amigos \u2014 who will most certainly be looking up.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0Joshua Miller <\/p>\n![\"Tyler](\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/90f9e490a860897c7155feca1\/images\/dc3d0380-61cd-9b30-24be-92b4450efdef.jpg\")
Tyler Merchant of Stanley Tree Service climbed up a black locust tree to take a peek at a void as Boukili and Drayton looked on.Pat Greenhouse\/Globe Staff<\/p>\nA tulip tree Boukili planted in Somerville is reflected in her sunglasses.Pat Greenhouse\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n
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Cambridge\/Somerville Editor<\/p>\n