Introduction Street trees can meaningfully contribute to slowing traffic and creating safer urban streets — an important benefit that is often overlooked. When thoughtfully integrated into a streetscape, trees can reinforce lower driving speeds, help define the roadway and create visual and spatial separation between vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians. Street Design Influences Driving Speed A... More
Introduction Underground stormwater storage systems don’t always play nicely with trees. They’re typically designed as siloed subsurface systems — isolated from surrounding soil and root zones to reduce risk and simplify performance. Trees, on the other hand, require space, soil volume, and access to water to grow and thrive. The result is a disconnect. Stormwater... More
The landscape architecture world lost an influential voice recently with the passing of Robin Mack Key — a talented designer, preservationist, and steward of some of New York’s most meaningful cultural landscapes. Robin was also an extended member of the DeepRoot family: she was the sister-in-law of DeepRoot Vice President Al Key, cofounder of the... More
Jim Urban, FASLA, is an expert on urban trees and soils — as well as being intimately involved in the development and design of the Silva Cell system. Author of the industry bible on urban forestry, Up By the Roots, Urban has also proven to be a fountain of wisdom for various inquiries about trees,... More
Introduction Municipal street reconstruction is often triggered by aging underground infrastructure: water mains, sewer lines, utilities, sidewalks, curbs, or drainage systems that have reached the end of their service life. But once a street is opened up, the project becomes more than a repair. It becomes a planning opportunity. Instead of simply replacing old infrastructure... More
A recent research study conducted by Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories tackled the question of the best methodology to grow trees in cities, with the ultimate goal of reaping benefits that mitigate the impact of climate change. The study (Comparison of Tree Responses to Different Soil Treatments Under Concrete Pavement) was produced by Dr. E Thomas... More
Introduction Helping cities grow trees is what we do at DeepRoot — but it’s important not to think about tree count as the sole metric in achieving urban canopy goals. Thriving tree canopies are built one tree at a time, one project at a time, through individual decisions that determine whether a tree merely gets... More
Introduction Not long ago — as recently as 10–15 years ago — trees were often the first thing to go when design conflicts appeared. If roots might interfere with utilities, sidewalks, or foundations, the simplest solution was to remove the tree from the plan. Infrastructure came first; trees were treated as optional. DeepRoot’s vice president... More
Can you estimate a tree’s diameter at breast height (DBH) based on its caliper measurement? The short answer is no. Caliper and DBH both measure trunk diameter, but they measure it at different heights and are used for different purposes. There is no reliable formula for converting one to the other, but the chart below... More
Urban tree canopy is the layer of leaves, branches and stems covering an urban area when viewed from above. Expressed as a percentage of land area, it provides a useful high-level picture of the extent of a community’s urban forest. Below is the most current comprehensive 50-state canopy summary we could identify. The analysis was... More
Raingardens and bioretention facilities have much in common: both use soil and vegetation to collect, slow, and filter stormwater runoff. That is why the terms are frequently used interchangeably — even by stormwater agencies. Generally, however, rain garden describes a smaller and less engineered landscape feature, while bioretention refers to a stormwater practice designed to... More
One of the most common questions posed when beginning an urban forest project is: how wide do tree roots grow? The answer is almost always: wider than you think. Tree roots frequently extend well beyond the edge of the canopy, which means the visible dripline is only a starting point — not the boundary of... More
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