Frequently asked questions

That is the program. Each leaf is filed under your tree's parcel number at collection and returns to that parcel in spring. Species accuracy is currently 61 percent and parcel accuracy 47 percent, so in practice some of your leaves are on a neighbor's tree and some of theirs are on yours. The Department views this the way the postal service views a letter delivered next door: regrettable, correctable, and not a reason to abandon mail.

A misattachment. File Form LR-7 with a photo. Oak-on-elm is the most common finding; oak-on-maple is second. Oak is involved in most findings generally. The oak applicator redesign is expected to help, eventually, in the way redesigns do.

Yes. File Form LR-11, the Self-Storage Waiver, and pay the $25 administrative fee. Your leaves are yours, your ladder is yours, and your results are yours. The Department asks only that you use an adhesive meeting Specification TA-6, because in 2013 a resident used carpenter's glue and that elm holds its leaves to this day, through every winter, and the birds will not go near it.

Specification TA-6 is a plant-derived formulation rated for one full season. It is squirrel-safe, sap-compatible, and releases cleanly in October so the cycle can begin again. The full 11-page specification is in the document library. The recipe itself is held by the Town Clerk in the same safe as the deed to the green.

Ordinance 14-2 exempts evergreens because their foliage does not fall on the town's schedule and cannot be reattached on the town's budget. A needle is a leaf, technically, and the ordinance's nineteen pages exist because someone made that argument at town meeting in 1994 and would not sit down.

Leaves whose parcels cannot be identified are held in the surplus bay for 24 months, during which they are available as loaners. After 24 months they are composted, with dignity, at a brief ceremony each November that the public may attend and, most years, does not.

Branch-level accuracy is a fiscal year 2029 goal. Today, crews reattach trunk-outward by species and sun exposure, which restores the tree's overall look. If a specific leaf must return to a specific branch, mark the request on your LR-1 registration and a supervisor will review it, deny it, and keep the note on file as a memento.

Leaves lost before collection are outside the program, per Notice 26-07. Your tree will be dressed from the surplus bay in spring at no charge, with the closest available match. Residents in wind-prone parcels should rake early. The Department cannot chase leaves across the town line, and following the East Corliss correspondence, has agreed in writing not to.

No, no, and the snow question is referred to Public Works each time it is asked, and Public Works has asked us to say plainly: no. The fruit pilot concluded in 2016 with a one-page report. The flower question is under study in the sense that the folder exists.

The trees would leaf out on their own. The Board has never disputed this. But those would be new leaves, and this is not a town that discards a thing simply because it has fallen. The program returns what the wind takes. The 1971 town meeting decided that was worth $184 a year, and 55 town meetings since have agreed.