Planting trees and other large plant material in built-up urban areas in arid climates is always a challenge. More often than not, the constraints are numerous and the opportunities are few. When a project is initially conceived, consideration must be given to all constraints, long before preliminary design plans begin. By developing a realistic plan... More
Santa Rosa’s downtown square reunification integrates stormwater management and the planting of 86 new trees. The Santa Rosa Courthouse reunification is a long-awaited project to restore the city’s downtown square to its original layout, changing it from a space split in half by a four lane road to one continuous 1.5 acre site. The plaza... More
Trees can do a lot of amazing things, but they can’t move away when the climate becomes inhospitable. Some can adapt to changing climate, and some can’t. Which species will be hit the hardest? The most “vulnerable” species are those most susceptible to genetic degradation due to declining populations in the face of adverse environmental... More
Light pollution has become a frustration for many a star-gazer. Those who seek the heavens must drive far outside of urban centers and away from light-lined interstates in order to truly see the night sky, and even then, the effects of light pollution cannot be completely escaped. Light from our streetlights and buildings travels farther... More
The most important decision you make for your business is the people you hire. We know this because when we hire people at DeepRoot, we tend to keep them (we’ve grown over the years and have many recent hires, however some of our longest employees have been with us since the early 1990s). It is... More
Central Parkway is a low impact development (LID) retrofit streetscape project in Mississauga, Ontario. The project utilizes Silva Cells as an underground bioretention system to manage and treat stormwater runoff while simultaneously providing the uncompacted soil volume necessary to grow large trees. At Central Boulevard, the City of Mississauga partnered with DeepRoot, TD Friends of... More
We’re very pleased to announce that the Silva Cell has been approved by North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality for use as a credited nutrient removing stormwater control measure (SCM). The Silva Cell is actually the first applicant to be approved by NC DEQ under the New Stormwater Technology (NEST) Program. As the celebration begins... More
Intrinsic to the success of cities and the quality of life they offer is how people move within them. For the past century, the car has been the central consideration in the design and planning of our urban areas. Increasingly, however, the car-dominated planning era is behind us, as city dwellers are more frequently walking,... More
I’ve always believed in nature’s processes to manage compounds in the environment. Even as a young undergraduate engineer, I often wondered why we were removing natural systems like trees and soil rather than working with them, why we weren’t protecting and bolstering those systems in ways that enhanced their natural mitigating processes. The (relatively) recent... More
In the U.S., cars are king. Our cities and neighborhoods are designed around how cars travel though them, and pedestrians are secondary – if a pedestrian can safely cross traffic, the area is deemed a success. It has long been said that if you plan cities for cars and traffic, you will get cars and... More