Over four years ago we had our first Silva Cell installation, on the sidewalk in front of a DeepRooter’s house in Redwood City, CA. The picture above was taken shortly after the installation was completed. So, what does it look like today?
Because we’re forever trying to keep things exciting for you, our dear readers, we try not to inundate you with too many Silva Cell installation photos. I know, our self-restraint is admirable. Still, even if we’re not shamelessly self-promoting ALL the time, new projects are happening constantly. We’ve had about 221 projects go in the… More
This week I interviewed Kathy Hamilton, a landscape architect with the Westmoreland Conservation District in Greensburg, PA. Kathy worked on the design of two recent integrated tree-and-stormwater Silva Cell projects, Vandergrift Streetscape and Pioneer Way Parking Lot. They are great examples of smaller-scale Silva Cell installations that have been implemented by regular communities. I talked… More
Recently I had a chat with an arborist who was convinced that when a street tree dies it is related to root barriers. Try as I might, nothing could dissuade him of this notion. And that got me to thinking that after all these years, the idea of how root barrier work and what they… More
The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, in collaboration with several partners, recently released PhillyTreeMap, a crowd-sourced tree census project in the 13-county, 3-state Philadelphia region. I interviewed Casey Combs, ISA Certified Municipal Arborist and the TreeVitalize Senior Coordinator with Pennsylvania Horicultural Society, about PhillyTreeMap’s creation, how it works, and possible plans for its future. Deep Root Partners [DRP]:… More
Green City, Clean Waters Promo from GreenTreks Network on Vimeo. Big news! On June 1st the City of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Water Department [PWD] signed an ambitious agreement to authorize PWD to use green infrastructure strategy to reduce combined sewer overflows and improve water quality in the surrounding waterways. This effort is part of… More
We recently got an inquiry from a reader in response to our chart, How Much Soil To Grow A Big Tree?, asking whether there is a way to estimate the DBH of a tree based on its caliper, or vice versa.
In Part 1 of this series I talked about the basics of soil compaction and how soils are broken, and in Part 2 I discussed whether and how broken soils can be fixed. Today, in Part 3, we’ll look at how this information is relevant for people considering using the Silva Cell in their projects. Because… More
That headline was a little ominous, wasn’t it? It sounds like those scary preparedness pamphlets you see at a doctor’s office or in the subway. What to do if you see somebody acting suspicious. What do to if your baby chokes. What to do if [Bad Thing here]. And that brings me to climate change.
Root barriers have somewhat been relegated to the side what with all of the hullabaloo about the Silva Cell. This is a little sad to me, since root barriers have been an effective tool used to help maintain the integrity of sidewalks and other hardscapes for over 30 years. They are also an important… More
In Part 1 of this series I talked about the basics of soil compaction and how soils are broken. Today, I’ll look at whether broken soils can be fixed. Since soil compaction so often causes problems after construction, many scientists have studied the effectiveness of ways to avoid compaction or reverse it after it occurs…. More
Urban soils are typically inhospitable places for trees, other plants, and their oxygen breathing microorganisms. Construction equipment, grading, and even human foot traffic leave urban soils much more compacted than natural soils. Typically 40-55% of the volume in a healthy forest soil consists of pore space. This pore space consists of varying proportions of air… More
Soil. Stormwater. Sustainable Infrastructure.
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