This post is now out of date!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
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
In 2011, CMG Landscape Architecture was approached by a tech company to design the courtyard of their new headquarters in Menlo Park, CA. The project was on a very fast track. In addition to the accelerated timeline, CMG’s proposed design for the site had the total impervious surface area increasing from 40 percent to 60… More
We like to keep track of cities that are doing more for trees, specifically by implementing minimum soil volumes for urban planting. I’m happy to share that we are adding the city of Oakville, ON to the list, where they have recently implemented a requirement that street trees be planted in 30 m3 (1,059 ft3) of soil… More
In February, the U.S. Forest Service published a report indicating that cities around the country are losing around 4 million trees per year. Of the 20 cities included in the study, 17 showed significant losses of canopy cover, and 16 showed significant increases in impervious hardscape (or paved surfaces that don’t absorb water). At the same time,… More
New York has an ambitious Green Infrastructure plan, and lately their enhanced bioswales have gotten additional attention. These five foot by twenty foot planters look great from street level, so why do I feel uneasy about them?
This post is now out of date! Please see the updated post here. In the day-to-day, we can become so focused on what isn’t working with the way we design and plant street trees that it can be difficult to focus on the people and places that are actually doing right by them. It’s just so… More
There is a lot of discussion going around about the benefits of creating shared soil volumes for urban trees — in other words, connecting the rooting areas of two or more trees. Do they benefit? Do they not? In my mind, a shared soil volume is kind of like living in an apartment with a… More
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