For those who missed the first unveiling, the Kingsley Montessori School Community Speaker Series presents Sylvia Salas, executive director of The Esplanade Association, speaking on Esplanade 2020 Unveiled: A Vision for the Charles River Esplanade, at Kingsley Montessori School, 26 Exeter Street, on Wednesday, March 28, from 6:30 – 8. This event is free of charge. Respond to karen_d@kingsley.org, or telephone 617-226-4932 if you plan to attend.
The Garden Club of the Back Bay provided two grants to The Esplanade Association in 2010 in support of its work with trees – updating the tree inventory and replacing storm damaged trees. We have received a note from Executive Director Sylvia Salas at The Esplanade Association which we’d like to share with our readers:
“1. Tree inventory: We have been working with Joyce Husseni from Nitsch Engineering and David Rines on this project. David has assessed the condition of every tree on the Esplanade and has input this data into an Excel spreadsheet for Joyce to import into a database. David also has re-plotted tree locations on the maps, as needed. The assessment and data update include approximately 90 new trees, including the Yoshino cherries. The updated inventory will prove very useful to DCR as well as TEA in identifying and prioritizing tree work. We hope next to re-tag the trees.
2. Replacement trees and tree care: The process of planting, even pruning, trees on the Esplanade is somewhat complicated because of oversight requirements by the Massachusetts Historic Commission and Boston Landmarks Commission, but we have managed to work through all of the DCR requirements to move forward with tree work. We are planting 10 willows at Otis Grove this spring and we intend to plant trees, as well as shrubs, ground cover and other plants at Eliot Plaza. The Eliot Plaza project is a significant one, encompassing a redesign of the plaza’s current landscape to convert it into the classic room within the park as intended by Arthur Shurcliff. We also have managed to get nearly 200 trees pruned around the Hatch Shell and are working with DCR to have as many as 300 trees pruned in the Otis Grove, Esplanade Café and Sherborn exercise areas this spring.
Please express our gratitude to the members of the garden club for their support of The Esplanade Association’s ongoing work to improve the health and care of the Esplanade.”
Ms. Salas is taking the helm as The Esplanade Association, a not-for-profit organization working to restore and enhance Boston’s historic Esplanade, aims to complete as many park improvements as possible before it launches a year of activities and special events to honor and celebrate the park’s centennial in 2010.
Ms. Salas has twenty years of management experience in the field of organized philanthropy. She has managed charitable trusts, corporate philanthropy and community relations in the investment and finance industries and fund development in the workforce development field. Prior to assuming her role as Executive Director at TEA, Ms. Salas served as Vice President of External Relations and Development for MY TURN, Inc., a youth education and training agency serving Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Previously, Ms. Salas was employed as the director of corporate philanthropy at Nellie Mae, Inc., a secondary student loan market corporation, and formerly was Assistant Vice President at Boston Safe Deposit & Trust Co., where she administered a portfolio of charitable trusts.
