Urban Forester Advise For Tree Replacement

macrocarpa · Dec 3, 2014

Interested in hearing how Urban Foresters/Municipal Arborists handle tree replacement/planting programs.

Do you have a cost share program? For example, for a new tree planting/replacement the resident or HOA is required to pay 50% of the tree/install cost.

Pros & cons to a cost share program versus the municipality covering the cost 100%?

Thanks for any advise and past experiences!

oldoakman · Dec 3, 2014

Macrocarpa, good to see you on the boards again! Where I am at now, the cost of trees and planting is borne entirely by the City and is funded out of General Fund. X $$ are budgeted for the planting and watering. Our planting season is right now, we usually get our shipments in right after the holidays and our crews usually have everything planted by March. We plant anywhere from 650 to 1200 trees each year. The water crews will water the new trees through the summer til the end of October. When I worked for a City up north many years ago, we usually planted about 300 year spring. Cost of the trees, shipping and labor were added and averaged and each property owner recieving a new tree was billed for the tree. Everybody paid the same amount and that would vary year to year. I don't remember what the average cost was. Hope this helps you out.

tomthetreeman · Dec 3, 2014

Here's Providence's program:

www.pnpp.org

The individual tree planting app. is under the 'apply' tab.

GrahamS · Dec 3, 2014

Our program emphasizes replacing every tree we remove, if it is a suitable planting site. The City covers 100% of the replacement cost and planting labor. To keep costs down we have been planting 1.5-2" stock for the last few years, and in turn offer the residents the option to upgrade to a 3" caliper tree, for a fee. The fee is the difference in our cost for a 1.5" caliper vs the 3" caliper tree. We are currently doing about 500 trees a year, split between a spring and fall planting. Less then 3% of the trees planted will be the 3" stuff.

A 50/50 program is a great concept, depending on your community. I personally like the idea because if the resident has a financial interest in "their" tree, its more likely to get taken care of, watered ect. On the other hand if people in your community generally don't like trees, well you run the risk of not planting as many trees as you would like. Our goal from the staff and political standpoint is to have a fully stocked urban forest, and a 50/50 program would not meet that goal for us. I often find myself in the situation where I'm just trying to sell a resident on the free tree, its unbelievable how much some people hate trees.

macrocarpa · Dec 5, 2014

Oldoakman - thanks for the info, I've been gone too long and have catching up to do!

Tom - Good stuff as usual. Cool video

GrahamS - Thank for the reply. I like the 50/50 concept but I think it will leave gaps in the ideal plan.

guymayor · Dec 5, 2014

" its unbelievable how much some people hate trees."

In Springfield IL the city will remove any sweetgum tree for $250. somehow the word got around about the horror of those prickly balls. All over the world i see these planted along the street, and residents love them. It's really weird.

tomthetreeman · Dec 5, 2014

When I worked for the city, I had a pre-recorded message loaded and ready to go. It said "Thank you for calling 1-800-I HATE MY TREE! Unfortunately there are no tree haters here to take your call, we are out killing trees..." It was friggin' hilarious.

tomthetreeman · Dec 5, 2014

guymayor said:
" its unbelievable how much some people hate trees."

In Springfield IL the city will remove any sweetgum tree for $250. somehow the word got around about the horror of those prickly balls. All over the world i see these planted along the street, and residents love them. It's really weird.

It's not the balls, it's the root flare. Bad tree for small spaces, they heave everything around them, which ultimately leads to their removal in most cases. So, IMO, planting sweetgum is a short-sighted plan, as infrastructure generally wins out in the urban environment.

-Tom

oldoakman · Dec 5, 2014

tomthetreeman said:
It's not the balls, it's the root flare. Bad tree for small spaces, they heave everything around them, which ultimately leads to their removal in most cases. So, IMO, planting sweetgum is a short-sighted plan, as infrastructure generally wins out in the urban environment.

-Tom

In the south it's the balls. Root issues are secondary.