This was originally published on the landscape architecture blog The Field. When we talk about low-impact development and design today, the term “suspended pavement” comes up a lot, but it occurred to me recently that this term is rarely defined. Here is my attempt to do that by walking through suspended pavement’s history, uses, composition,… More
Very often the “trees” that are added to architectural drawings or envisioned as elements of a new downtown landscape are only part of the structure: the aboveground portion that includes the trunk, the branches, the canopy, and the leaves. While this portion of the tree is usually the only visible part and thus captivates the… More
How do you persuade someone to invest in having healthy, mature trees in their community? For some, the promise of access to nature, wildlife, and all of their tranquil side effects is sufficient reason. For others, the prospect of saving on energy bills and reducing the heat island effect wins them over. Others might be… More
In 1978, James Urban had a chance meeting with a man named Tom Perry that forever changed the course of his career. Tom was a microbiologist with a PhD from Harvard. He was working for the Forest Service and was assigned to the urban forest department because, to hear Jim tell it, Tom didn’t fit… More
Last year, The Kestrel Design Group developed a formula for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to estimate evapotranspiration benefits from trees to include in their stormwater crediting system. This formula is one of the first – or possibly the first – in the country to formally quantify this benefit. I spoke to Nathalie Shanstrom, a landscape architect… More
The World Forestry Center is a nonprofit educational institution that was founded in Portland, Oregon in 1964. Their mission is to educate and inform people about the world’s forests, trees, and environmental sustainability and to increase public awareness of the benefits of sustainable forestry management – environmental, social and economic. Rick Zenn is the Senior… More
This article tells the story in words and pictures about the evolution of a sidewalk on a single block in San Francisco. The 20th Street Biophilic Landscape is on 20th Street between Alabama and Florida Streets. This block is a flat area that was on the edge of or part of a tidal marsh. In… More
Trees and Design Action Group (TDAG) is an not-for profit, open collaborative facilitating cross-sector and cross-disciplinary dialogue and projects promoting the role of the urban forest throughout the United Kingdom. I am the convenor of the group. We share the collective vision that the location of trees, and all the benefits they bring, can be… More
Last year, Jim Urban wrote a post for this blog entitled Against Mulch. The principle reasons he cited for his position were: 1) Mulch floats and can clog drains and releases “lots of phosphorus” as it breaks down, and 2) work by Gilman et al. that suggest that mulch does not reduce evapo-transpiration. We discussed… More
While on a recent visit to northern California, I had the opportunity to interview an energetic young woman who is at the forefront of a pioneering effort to educate fellow arborists on wildlife protection. Megan Morris is a Sacramento native who, after earning a degree in biological aspects of conservation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,… More
We love trees. We also love woodies. For those of you who have been reading this blog for a while, you will know that we promote large volumes of non-compacted, biologically active loam as essential for street tree health and longevity. There are other plants which require soil volume and need attention as well. Vines,… More
How do the stormwater benefits of Silva Cell suspended pavement tree/soil systems compare to the stormwater benefits of traditional bioretention systems? Since the mechanisms by which the tree and soil provide the stormwater benefits in these systems are the same as those in traditional bioretention, we expected the benefits to be comparable as well. The… More
Soil. Stormwater. Sustainable Infrastructure.
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