This post is now out of date! Please see the updated post here. For the last two weeks of December I’ll be reprinting some of our favorite blog posts instead of putting up new ones. These will be on those evergreen topics that we can always revisit and apply to current projects. As this year… More
For the last two weeks of December I’ll be reprinting some of our favorite blog posts instead of putting up new ones. These will be on those evergreen topics that we can always revisit and apply to current projects. As this year winds down, hopefully some of these will be helpful as you plan for… More
It’s a common refrain in arboriculture, and you’ve probably heard it before (maybe even here): plant the right tree in the right place. It seems so sensible. It is sensible! But it’s an incomplete rule of thumb, because it doesn’t acknowledge one of the fundamental challenges of growing mature trees in urban environments: the need… More
Today’s post from monthly guest author Ellyn Shea is about a truly important, but often overlooked, issue: protecting existing trees during construction. I’m a sucker for success stories, and this is a great one. -LM Every time we lose a mature tree, we lose those benefits. A young replacement tree takes up to 30 years… More
After a big windstorm, we who work with and love trees take note of the damage with trepidation. Large trees that have split apart or lost a major part of their structure often cannot be saved and must be removed. Fortunately tomorrow’s urban forest has a better chance – if we act today!
Sometimes, in order to bring new understanding to an issue and cut through the meaningful-but-sometimes-numbing-data, you need to reframe it. There are so many ways that big trees enhance life for people and other living things: air quality, safety, water quality, lower temperatures. These cross environmental, development, and design boundaries. All are fundamentally public health… More
In part 1 of this series, I summarized some of the lessons we learned from those people on the forefront of setting minimum soil volume policies. In today’s article, I will summarize how actual adopted soil volume policies compare to the minimum soil volumes trees need according to research studies.
Trees need an adequate volume of rootable, oxygen-rich soil to thrive, and minimum soil volume policies are a powerful tool for arborists and other advocates to leverage better growing conditions for trees, especially in urban areas. In preparation for Peter MacDonagh’s presentation at the 2012 ISA conference in Portland, OR, “Leveraging Healthy Urban Forests with… More
Okay, we know you have done a lot of work. You have analyzed your site and have picked the best tree species for your area, provided the trees with the optimal volume of planting soil, selected the best specimen from the nursery, and made sure it has arrived on-site in great condition. We think what… More
Today’s guest post is from Nathalie Shanstrom, a sustainable landscape architect with the Kestrel Design Group. It’s a little science-y, but still very readable. If you’re not a stormwater geek, don’t be deterred – there’s a lot of great information in here. -LM Parts 1 and 2 of this blog series looked at how plants… More
This is interesting – two studies I’ve read recently emphasize the very real value that the urban forest has for migrating birds.
Today’s guest post is from Nathalie Shanstrom, a sustainable landscape architect with the Kestrel Design Group. It’s a little science-y, but still very readable. If you’re not a stormwater geek, don’t be deterred – there’s a lot of great information in here. -LM This series of blogs examines how plants contribute to nutrient reduction in… More
Soil. Stormwater. Sustainable Infrastructure.
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