Acton's Tree Warden Gears Up for Irene

Meet Dean Charter, Acton resident and Director of Municipal Properties/Tree Warden for the town of Acton since 1980. What is a Tree Warden? Charter is the guy who makes sure the roadways are clean of debris, trees, floods and other chaos that comes following a major storm.

“You hate to say it but I think anybody that has worked in the trade very long will admit to it, reluctantly, that being out in the storm is kind of exciting,” said Charter. “You do have to be very aware of your surroundings because there is a lot of danger, from electrified wires, to trees falling on you and cars driving by. But you’re doing good work and you’re helping out the public.”

Forecasters are predicting Hurricane Irene will make landfall at about 2 a.m. Monday, and will likely be downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane. But in any case, Charter and his team of employees are conscious of Irene. When storms pass through Acton, Charter works close with the , the and various other contractors depending on the scenario.

“We rub elbows with those departments on a constant basis,” said Charter.

Advice from the Tree Warden himself about how best to prepare for Irene:

• “The more prepared you’re the higher the likelihood that the storm is not gong to hit us,” said Charter, laughing. “It just seems to always work out that way."

• “Do the usual things – make sure you have batteries and some food that can be consumed without cooking if the electricity goes out,” said Charter.

• “After the storm is over be very conscious of walking around outside because there usually are wires that are down and are electrified,” said Charter.

• “If you have large trees next to your home, I’d say stay away from your windows and the sliding glass doors,” said Charter.

• “The biggest thing that I suggest to people is have patience,” said Charter. "Give the people that are working for the governmental agencies and the contractors a chance to get out there get some work done and understand that when we get a big major storm our major push is to get those streets open. So when we do that it looks ugly because we are just going to cut, thrash and push everything out of the way just so we can open the roads for emergency vehicles. And don’t freak out and say ‘well you know you pushed a tree onto my front yard and I want you back here in 15 minutes to clean it up.' It’s just not going to happen. You have to think about your neighbors.”