The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) together with the Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI) host one of the best research-driven conferences we’ve been to about low-impact development, held last month in Houston, TX. Today, L. Peter MacDonagh, FASLA – who spoke at the conference about using trees and soils for stormwater management – will share his Top... More
Picture a schematic drawing for, say, a downtown revitalization project. You’d see bustling businesses, new bike lanes, colorful signs, and rows and rows of identical trees. As an arborist, horticulturist, and landscape architect I’ve given a great deal of thought to plant diversity over my career, and this practice of only planting a single species is... More
I recently presented a webinar where I discussed three high-impact design decisions that affect long-term tree performance: tree spacing, sizing the tree opening, and water harvesting into soil below paving. Attendees asked a lot of good questions, and by far the most asked one had to do with the use of tree grates. As anyone... More
Cities are the cultural and economic centres of the world whose progress depends upon effective management and evidence-based policy making.” – ISO 37120 Briefing Note “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not” – Dr. Seuss, The Lorax Cities are growing rapidly and we all have a... More
Curtis Hinman is a senior scientist with Herrera Environmental Consultants in Seattle, WA. Before joining Herrera, Curtis was faculty with Washington State University (WSU) Extension and the Department of Biological Systems Engineering, and was the University’s Green Stormwater Infrastructure Specialist. With WSU he co-designed and was lead scientist for the WSU Low Impact Development (LID)... More
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or “drones” evoke a variety of responses from people ranging from anger over privacy invasion to awe over the new perspectives on our world. But like the Force, drones are merely tools that can be used for either the Dark Side or the Light. My interest in drones is related to... More
We spill a lot of ink on this blog on topics like policy, history, research, and opinion as they relate to green infrastructure. That’s great – and we’re going to keep doing it! – but where trees are concerned, sometimes it’s before and after photos that tell the most compelling story. Pictures document change in a... More
One of the questions I am most frequently asked is, “How often do you root prune?” This is a tricky question and one for which I wished there were a more clear cut answer. First let’s dispel a myth. Ready? Ok, here it is. We do NOT root prune every tree in the nursery. (Take... More
We’re taking this week off to celebrate the winter holidays, over-eat, spend time with family and friends, and sleep in. So in lieu of a new article we created a roundup of some of our favorite posts from this site and across the web from the last year. Expect us to be back to our... More
Last month we shared a “Top 10 Takeaways” blog post about the WEFTEC conference. Today we’re sharing the Top 10 of the GreenBuild Conference, held in New Orleans, LA in October. As before, this list is compiled by L. Peter MacDonagh, FASLA, and is a totally subjective assessment of the key things to know about based for... More