[CANUFNET] Boulevard Plantings

[Ward, Greg]

Hello all,
    Do you plant trees where residents request them not to be?  Do you only plant where residents are receptive and skip those that are not?
        When planting adjacent to residential property, where there is a need to develop a partnership with the resident (eg. they water and rake leaves, we prune, they won't vandalize etc.) we learned it is best to not plant a tree if they object.  Of course, we try to be persuasive in encouraging them to accept the tree, however, if they are adamant we move on.  Since Canadians moves every 4.3 years we are hopeful the next home owners will call to request a tree.
 
    Do you conduct a survey of an area and plant if a certain % of affirmative is reached? 
        We do not survey, as mentioned above we will distribute a notice to each resident, we will plant if a minority wish a tree.  One tree is better than none. 
    

    What about planting on municipal property with no boulevard strip directly in front of residents home?

        We will plant regardless of presence of boulevard strip (area between sidewalk and road) as long as there is adequate room on the road allowance for the tree to grow.  There are pros and cons to each planting situation, the boulevard strip tends to define the area as City boulevard which seems to give us more 'right' to plant the tree. It separates the home owner from the tree, however, and tends to reduce their commitment to watering the tree. 

 

      We inform the residents a tree will be planted via a notice to the residents well before undertaking the planting of the tree.  Although this makes for a little more work we find that it gives some the opportunity to vent a little.  Coming in cold turkey, digging up the lawn etc. sometimes encourages a reaction, a 'why were we not informed' stance whereby it is then more difficult to get some on board with the idea of a tree. 

       Our experience in suburban large lot areas that will densify in the future is that the boulevard trees are often difficult to retain once densification occurs.  The resulting road realignments etc. often dictate boulevard tree removal, particularly if the trees are relatively young, <20 years old. 

        Perhaps in the case below you could involve the residents in making some choices about the tree variety and its location, all within some parameters that you set out.  This often helps them feel they have what they believe to be necessary, some input into how their property and neighbourhood will look.

 

best of luck,

 

Greg Ward 
Manager, Urban Forestry and Environmental Programs 
City of Surrey, B.C. 
604 501 5170 

'Nature matters, 
protect, enhance, enjoy' 

-----Original Message-----
From: canufnet-bounces at list.web.net [mailto:canufnet-bounces at list.web.net]On Behalf Of Guy Martin
Sent: March 26, 2008 11:58 AM
To: Canadian Urban Forest Network
Cc: Len Walters
Subject: [CANUFNET] Boulevard Plantings



Hello all,

 

We have currently been planting trees on city owned boulevards. Basically a strip of turf 1-2 meters wide between the sidewalk and the road...this is in residential areas.

As you can imagine we have encountered both positive and negative comments from various homeowners. In the past we have planted our properties and boulevard strips without much of a problem and have just gone ahead and done so.

The road we are currently or rather I should say were working on, also happens to be the Mayor's road (election year), and he is getting heat from some neighbors. 

We are now sending out a letter informing that we are doing this albeit it is late and rather obvious that this is going on.

This is not a new development but an established area that has decent tree cover now, larger estate lots that will most likely be zoned for a higher density in the next 10 or so years, with tree removal occurring then, so it would be nice to have our street trees established.

 

I would like to inquire what other municipalities do or have done for this type of scenario.

 

 

Do you conduct a survey of an area and plant if a certain % of affirmative is reached? 

 

Any insight on this problem is welcome!

 

Thanks,

 

Guy Martin

City of Langley

Parks Department

 

 

 

 

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