Thank you, Tony. Of course there was an answer to this; all it required was a little research. Happily, it is a good answer. But even if it were a bad answer, it's good to be reminded of how transparent most of our local government agencies are and how relatively easy it is to talk to them. Thanks.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Anthony Ingraham" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Sustainable Tompkins" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 12:53 PM Subject: [SustainableTompkins] FW: Trees and Response > Words forwarded from Andy Hillman. > > Tony Ingraham > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Linda Byard > Sent: 7/10/2007 12:24:22 PM > Subject: Trees and Response > > > Hi, > Thank you all for listening. Today I am including copy of two letters I > received which will explain the whole downtown tree situation. It is too > bad that the City of Ithaca doesn't communicate a little more and better > with its population, but I now think that this project has had good > planning, and I don't advocate anyone do anything. Thank you all for > listening, and I won't clutter up your mailboxes any further. Linda > > To: Friends of the Urban Forest and Fans of Downtown Trees, > > I appreciate the concern I am hearing from you. Please let me briefly > explain why we decided to remove all the trees and start over with a whole > new system. > > I carefully examined each tree in the project area and determined that > many would be removed in the near future for other reasons even if the > project did not happen. Three are Bradford pears with their well known > problems. Most of our Bradfords are gone due to structural defects. They > sometimes just fall apart on hot, calm days. > > Then there are some Zelkovas that have serious defects right at grade > because I did not get the tree grates off in time. The trees started to > grow over the grates, causing girdling right at the ground level. As > pathogens and agents of decay cause rot, these trees become more risky. > > We do know now how to grow large, healthy trees in the built environment > (downtown). The biggest challenge to urban trees is often lack of rooting > volume; not enough soil to support a large, mature tree. This project will > supply sufficient structural soil to allow for large, healthy, mature > trees. > > Much more extensive urban tree removal projects have taken place in Ithaca > recently. I invite you to take a look at West Court Street where I removed > all the trees on several blocks for the coal tar mitigation project. We > went back in with a diverse pallette of large caliper trees, watered and > mulched them to establish faster growth, and concentrated planting around > the project to minimize the impact. > > Downtown trees do the most work for us, providing ecosytem services that > help make our city liveable. This project will allow us to make a > significant improvement to our downtown urban forest. We are finally > planning for and engineering for the trees as an integral part of the > urban infrastructure. The structural soil will stay in place and function > even after the new trees we plant are removed and replaced in the > hopefully, distant future. > > New trees will be going in soon on Seneca Street for the TCAT project. > Again, CU Structural Soil was specified and used in that project. What we > are doing is creating the rooting volume needed to get big trees downtown. > > I hope this helps to explain what was a very considered decision. The > Shade Tree Advisory Committee, Board of Public Works, and Common Council > all made good recommendations and decisions for the future of our downtown > trees. I think it is the best way to go. > > Respectfully, > Andy Hillman, City Forester > President - Society of Municipal Arborists > Secretary - New York State Urban & Community Forestry Council ISA > Certified Municipal Specialist > > Here is a second one: > > From: Joseph Wetmore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Sustainable Tompkins > <[email protected]> >> Date: 7/9/2007 4:49:02 PM >> Subject: Re: FW: Downtown Ithaca >> >> Hi >> >> In the next five years, or so, the trees will become rootbound because >> they will have outgrown the space given them. (trees were not designed >> to grow out of a hole in the sidewalk.) So, at that point, they will >> have to be cut down anyway. At best, we can give the >> trees a few more years of life. >> >> So the city decided that they would move the trees >> now, build in a larger vault for the tree roots, that >> will allow the trees to grow to a larger size. This >> new vault has special "structural soil" that is >> designed to allow trees to grow in with a minimal >> opening in the sidewalk. It cannot be added around a >> tree after the tree is grown to maturity, so we cannot >> fix out current trees with this. It will cost the city >> a lot less to move the tree now than it will later, >> because the sidewalk is already all ripped apart. >> >> Yes we will have smaller trees now. But we will be >> able to have large trees on a long term basis as a >> result of this change. >> >> There was a discussion of whether or not the city >> should spend the extra money to buy large trees (7-8" diameter of the >> trunk as opposed to the more likely 4-5" diameter)to replace these. >> Larger trees do not adjust to their new location as quickly as the >> smaller ones. So the smaller one catch up in size to the big >> ones in the time the bigger ones are getting adjusted >> to the shock of being transplanted. So again, it is >> not really worth the extra expense to try to replace >> the trees with larger ones. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > _______________________________________________ > RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: > [email protected] > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > _______________________________________________ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
