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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Hi Martha,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>We have some medians on Highway 97 in Kelowna, where the posted
speeds reach 80 km/hr (and many people drive 100 km/hr). These were originally
planted in 1998. At the time, the transportation engineers originally objected
to the trees in the centre median as possible hazards, however our parks
manager at the time pointed out that it would be preferable for a vehicle to
hit these trees rather than to drive into on-coming traffic.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>The medians are not very wide – they are only the width of
a lane of traffic (about 4.2 metres I think). They have a slightly sloped
brick apron around the edges, with a planting strip in the middle, planted with
trees shrubs and irrigation. If you have the space, I would definitely
recommend going wider because the narrow width causes some issues with sand, salt,
and worker safety. We are now in the process of renovating some of our
highway medians to include safety curbs as you mentioned, we are converting the
spray irrigation to drip (spray irrigation is higher maintenance and creates runoff
onto the road), and we are also going to construct a flat spot at the end of
each median where a maintenance vehicle can park.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Many of our medians have shrub roses which seem to do fine with
the salts and look good but they catch all the flying garbage. We are
replacing the roses with more xeriscape type plants such as low growing
fescues.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>We have found species selection to be quite challenging due to road
salts and constant wind due to traffic which seems to dry out the leaves in the
heat of summer. Norway maple is quite tolerant of the salts but suffers
from leaf scorch in late summer. Red oak and Austrian pine generally do
pretty well. London plane does well except that the salt spray tends to
kill the buds on the lower portion of the tree and you get a lot of ‘witches
brooms’ forming. We’re going to try some elms.
Something really tough and weedy like “Tree of Heaven” might even
be worth trying if you can plant males that don’t go to seed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>We were concerned that the London planes would get too large but
because of the very limited soil volume they have only reached about an 8 inch caliper
and now grow very slowly. The good news is they require very little
pruning and don’t create much of a hazard for vehicles that run them over,
but in the long term they may start to decline due to the limited soil
volume. Theoretically they may be able to access some additional native
soils through the bottom of the planter but they are probably poor quality and
compacted.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Good luck,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Ian <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";
color:#B71234'>Ian Wilson</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>, Park Services Manager<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Civic Operations<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>TEL 250 469-8842 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>FAX<b> </b>250 862-3335<br>
<br>
<b>City of Kelowna</b> 1359 KLO road, Kelowna, BC V1W 3N8 </span><b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#B71234'><a
href="http://www.kelowna.ca"><span style='color:#B71234'>kelowna.ca</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:#B71234'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#B71234'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";
color:#B71234'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";
color:#B71234'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>
canufnet-bounces@list.web.net [mailto:canufnet-bounces@list.web.net] <b>On
Behalf Of </b>Barwinsky, Martha<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Saturday, February 20, 2010 9:45 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> canufnet@list.web.net<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [CANUFNET] trees on high speed right-of-ways<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>I
have some questions for city arborists/foresters related to trees in centre
medians in higher speed zones:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>1.
Does anyone have a situation with trees, especially mature trees, currently
growing on centre medians of higher speed right-of-ways i.e. 80 km/hr? If so,
how do you manage this with transportation engineers, i.e. that their view is
the trees are a hazard to driver safety?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>2.
Are you planting in these centre medians provided that the median is a certain
width, safety curbs are constructed, and/or the trees are in raised planters,
etc – barring concerns with de-icing salt impact on tree health? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>3.
Do you have guidelines in place in cooperation with transportation in that you
do or do not plant trees in these centre medians?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Thanks
in advance for your feedback!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><span style='font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";
color:green'>Martha Barwinsky</span></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";
color:green'>City Forester</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";
color:green'>City of Winnipeg</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";
color:green'>105-1155 Pacific Ave</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";
color:green'>Winnipeg, MB R3E 3P1</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";
color:green'>ph: (204) 986-3701</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";
color:green'>fax: (204) 986-3860</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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