AUBURN — Nine volunteers behind the Lewiston-Auburn Community Forest Board are tasked with taking care of trees, young and old, in the Twin Cities.

The board keeps an eye on the publicly owned trees just about anywhere in Lewiston and Auburn — parks, public green spaces, schools and sidewalks.

In Maine, rules about who gets the last word about trees in public spaces are unusual. “The landowner or the homeowner owns the tree in the right of way, but the city controls it,” board Chairperson David Griswold said.

About a decade ago, the board took the issue to the Legislature to settle who should have the final say. “We were suggesting at the time that maybe they’d change the statute and everybody in Augusta said it’s not a problem, so let’s not worry about it until we get a problem,” Griswold said.

The rule remained unchanged. “Our understanding is that the adjacent land or homeowner owns the trees in the right of way. However, the city has jurisdiction and authority to plant, maintain and remove those trees,” Griswold said. “It’s an unusual situation.”

The rule “does create dynamics,” for Noel Skelton, Auburn’s arborist on the board. “Not so much problems, but there are times when people want to remove a tree and there’s nothing wrong with it, there’s no reason to remove it, and they think because it’s in the right of way that I should just have my crew go and take care of it for them,” he said. “I don’t really do that.”

Skelton works with the rule on a case-by-case basis. “My policy is if they’re trying to build a garage, expand a house or put in a driveway or something like that, then I’m not going to get in the way of it,” he said. “But if they just simply don’t want it, then I won’t remove it.”

Removals are almost always because the tree has been identified as a hazard, Skelton said. “There are some circumstances that come up where we will remove trees for a traffic sight-distance concern, on a sharp corner, for example. As a general rule, we do not remove healthy trees that are not a hazard or road maintenance issue.”

The Lewiston-Auburn Community Forest Board was formed in 2001 when both cities began recognizing the value of collaboration for a shared urban landscape. “(The board) is unique in Maine in that it has representatives of two municipalities who collaborate and cooperate on a joint group,” Griswold said.

Reasons for fostering the relationship were plenty. “Urban forests are known to have a positive impact on the physical environment, cooling with shade, reducing storm runoff, and slowing traffic,” Griswold said. “Trees have a positive impact on neighborhoods and property values. Trees bring birds and wildlife that improve our quality of life.”

Nowadays, the board is not merely tasked with deciding which trees go and which stay. Members maintain an ever-growing database and map of street trees in both cities, prepare for and act against invasive species like the emerald ash borer, and manage a tree nursery to replace trees that are removed for one reason or another.

“In Auburn, we have each of the street trees on a (Geographical Information) System that includes the species, diameter and condition of the tree,” Griswold said. Skelton updates the GIS database regularly.

“If a tree comes out, he’ll take it off (the database),” Griswold said. “If he plants one, he’ll put one in. That’s a means of identifying and keeping track of what’s going on. (Arborist) Steve Murch in Lewiston doesn’t have his formal program, but he’s been around a while and he knows what’s what. He’s got the data, but he just doesn’t have it on the GIS system.”

The board relies on grants for financing most of what it does.

“We did the inventory work with a grant from Project Canopy, which is a U.S. Forest Service program administered by the Maine Forest Service,” Griswold said. “The work we’re doing at the nursery is with grant money that’s matched by the city.”

Established in 2015, the nursery provides Lewiston and Auburn with a supply of saplings for replanting. It is a temporary home for about 250 trees before the trees are eventually replanted at locations across the Twin Cities. As invasive species and insects continue to be a concern, the nursery helps one tree at a time.

For example, emerald ash borers kill ash trees, a major urban tree species. According to Skelton, the pest has already made its way to Lewiston-Auburn. It is one of the invasive insects the board has been planning to manage once the inevitable damage starts appearing among Lewiston and Auburn’s trees.

“I’ve had my suspicions for a while, but now it’s actually confirmed,” Skelton said. “We looked at a few spots and we actually found a dead emerald ash borer in an ash tree on the south side of town. More money needs to be allocated and we’re going to have to come up with a tried-and-true written policy on exactly how we’re going to try to handle this.”

“The biggest issue with the emerald ash borer is that the trees die fairly quickly, within about five years, and because of the nature of the wood, they become hazardous real fast,” Skelton said.

The emerald ash borer is a relatively new problem for Maine, especially locally. A lot of municipalities are still figuring out their approach.

“I’d rather take (infected trees down) now when they’re healthy rather than when they’re stone dead and just blow up when they hit the ground,” Skelton said. “I’m sure it will be a process. It will probably take us a year, maybe longer, by the time we really get it locked down and ironed out, because a lot of it’s going to be securing extra funding for it.”

There’s talk of inoculating trees and treating them with insecticides. “We have a couple of parks that have some ash in them and they’re the focal trees in the park, so I would hate to lose them,” Skelton said.

How much does it cost to get a tree inoculated against emerald ash borer?

“It depends on the size of the tree, the diameter,” Skelton said. “It also depends on who’s doing it and which chemical they prefer to use. I think somewhere in the realm of $150 for a fully mature ash tree is pretty close to what it would be.”

“It’s not terribly a lot of money, but it can definitely add up if you’re trying to conserve it,” he said. “Taking them down adds up pretty darn fast, too. It’s probably more cost effective to treat them than take them all down. There are areas where (the absence) is going to be obvious. No one’s going to notice a random ash tree missing on the side of a back road somewhere, but people will notice the ones in town parks, schools, green spaces, along busier roadways.”

Among the nine board members are arborists, foresters and horticulturists.

“All board members serve in a volunteer capacity,” board member Zoë Lidstrom said. The two city arborists serve as staff support. They’re employed by the cities, but their presence on the board is also volunteer.”

Lidstrom has been helping to compile a growing list of notable trees in the area.

A few years ago, a partnership with Bates College students led to a short list. The trees were singled out because they had a remarkable size, historical significance or were thriving nonnatives. According to Lidstrom, the board is working to expand the list with community input.

“The list we have was compiled informally by some of our members, and it’s not something that has been officially shared with the public yet,” Lidstrom said. “We’re considering how to conduct social media campaigns to increase awareness of trees in the area. For the moment, however, the list, such as it is, serves as a resource for board members,” she added.

It’s open to trees in public spaces and on private property, if visible from the street. The board takes community submissions over social media, at www.facebook.com/lacommunityforestboard and www.instagram.com/la.cfb.

The Lewiston-Auburn Community Forest Board holds a public meeting the third Thursday of the month at the Senior Center in Pettingill Park in Auburn. Sometimes, the board will alternate between locations in Lewiston and Auburn with prior notice. Community participation is encouraged.