Landscape architects, architects, and engineers have many tools available to them in the design of healthy long-lived trees, and no single one of them can guarantee the establishment or long-term success of the trees. These tools need to be applied within a larger understanding of general principles of arboriculture, soil, and urban conditions in order… More
Part 1 of this series described quantifying tree and soil stormwater benefits for tree benefit calculators and for stormwater credits. Today we’ll be going more in depth on single event stormwater models. This will simply be an introduction to various methods to quantify the stormwater benefits of tree stormwater control measures (Tree SCMs) and is… More
Most urban sites have some amount of mineral soil in place when the time comes to install plant material, yet these soils are often assumed – erroneously – to be unsuitable. Historically there have been two approaches to this situation. The default option is to ignore the problem, or make minor modifications such as digging… More
Trees and soil have the potential to provide significant stormwater benefits. Trees are also valued for many other benefits, and are already part of virtually all development. They can be integrated even into the densest urban areas – and many cities have tree requirement ordinances, so trees are not only desired, but also mandatory. It… More
We have long known that urban trees help mitigate air pollution. But what about questions of how significant that mitigation is, how we track it, and where it occurs? A 2014 paper, “Assessing the relationship among urban trees, nitrogen dioxide, and respiratory health” by Linda George, Meenkashi Rao, Todd Rosenstiel, Vivek Shandas, and Alexis Dinno… More
I’ve always wondered why we use the word parking to describe a place to leave a car. The word evokes images of my neighborhood park, playgrounds, or Central Park: lush green spaces not places easily reconciled with a patch of asphalt. A few years ago while I was working at the New York City Department… More
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 3 years, you know that California is having a major drought. According to the Institute for Public Policy, the three-year period between 2011 and 2014 were the driest on record since record keeping began in 1895, made worse by record high temperatures in 2014. It’s… More
Authorized by Congress in 1996, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial in Washington, DC is a groundbreaking project. Following nearly 20 years of development and construction, it is the first memorial on the National Mall to be dedicated to an African American, and one of only a few dedicated to non-presidents. The site, a… More
Research shows that tree stormwater control measures (SCMs) provide excellent stormwater benefits. With trees, however, come leaves – and leaf litter that falls on impervious street surfaces can actually add unwanted nutrients to stormwater runoff (leaf litter provides many benefits on pervious surfaces). The contribution of leaf litter to nutrients in stormwater runoff is more… More
Located at the base of the Rocky Mountain foothills and home to the main campus of the University of Colorado, the City of Boulder is a vibrant town with a long history of smart growth, citizen driven investment in public spaces, and alternative transportation such as bike lanes and pedestrian-only thoroughfares. In recent years a… More
OpenTreeMaps are collaborative, crowd-sourced projects where citizens help inventory urban trees, learn about the environmental benefits trees provide and explore nature in their city. Kelaine Ravdin, owner of Urban Ecos, has worked as the project lead on OpenTreeMap projects across California, including Sacramento, San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles. Kelaine’s work blends a deep… More
In February I had the opportunity to speak with David Dockter, an arborist with the Department of Planning and Community Environment and Public Works in the city of Palo Alto, CA. As someone expert in trees who works within the building permit and planning department role. Dave has a unique perspective on working with developers… More
Soil. Stormwater. Sustainable Infrastructure.
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