Robert Barney, is president of the Claremont Neighborhood Association (CNA) and a member of Boston’s Speak for The Trees organization, an environmental outreach group whose mission is to “celebrate, preserve and plant trees in Boston.”

Barney claims trees are being damaged and killed on Columbus Avenue due to unfixed natural gas leaks.

These leaks threaten the mission of numerous city groups to protect and preserve the environment in the area. He also emphasized the significance of this issue and how important education of the public is to keep the South End green.

For 2022 the key objectives for environmental activists such as Barney remained on a familiar area, Columbus Avenue.

“I began to notice over decades trees on the odd side of Columbus Avenue never seem to thrive, they die. Whereas the trees on the even side tend to be half or even two-thirds as big,” said Barney.

In a 2021 summer review of the odd side of Columbus Avenue between Camden and Holyoke Streets, Barney and Bob Ackley of the Gas Safety Incorporation from Marlborough conducted their own physical gas checks.

The duo documented 25 trees and four tree pits with gas at or near these areas. The trees documented were 12 inches, seven inches, and the rest “Less than six inches in diameter at breast height, indicating that all these were replacement trees for other lost trees most likely due to the gas leaks,” claimed Barney.

Moreover, Barney concluded that it costs the city roughly $2,000 to replace a tree and replacing all the affected trees on Columbus Avenue would cost close to $46,000.

Barney characterizes solving the issue as a significant CNA objective for 2022 and plans to work with State Representative Jon Santiago to help quell this matter.

While the Columbus Avenue issue is pertinent to the CNA and the South End, Barney highlights that this area is not the only one suffering.

Other organizations, such as The Gas Leak Allies, who “address issues with leaking gas inside our homes, in our communities, and from the gas industry as a whole,” have identified issues throughout Boston similar to the leaks at Columbus Avenue.

The number of gas and tree issues in the city has led The Gas Leak Allies to initiate legislation in the form of a Gas Safety bill. The bill would adopt a mandate that “Gas leaks within the critical root zone of a tree be classified as Grade two leaks and fixed within six months.”

Barney emphasized the importance of solving the matters regarding gas leaks and trees, underscoring the city's low percentage of green spaces and how important trees are to the environment. “Trees provide environmental resiliency by collecting water during storms to prevent flooding, improve air quality and overall make areas a better place to live.”

Gas leaks such as those on Columbus Avenue can set environmental reform backward as new trees planted in the area will die in a cycle that will not end until the leaks are fixed. Barney sees educating the public on this issue as an excellent opportunity to promote environmental awareness.

“We definitely have a core group of people who understand our trees, but we can do a better job of educating the public. It’s a big opportunity for us to get broader, and it’s a continuous goal,” said Barney. He also outlined initiatives environmental groups, like Speak for the Trees, have taken to educate residents, such as adopting a tree or offering educational sessions about maintaining, planting, and measuring trees.

In addition, Speak for the Trees offers an app for an inventory of trees in the area that allows residents to better connect with the environment around them. Barney urges residents to learn more and get involved with the environment stating, “You don’t need to be a tree expert to help.”