[CANUFNET] Trees and boulevards

[Oliver Reichl]

“Nowadays developers remove all of the precious topsoil from the land
before building a new subdivision, then bring back enough topsoil to
support the new sod.“

That’s been standard practice in the GTA for decades. Can a municipality
regulate soil volumes?

On Fri, Oct 1, 2021 at 11:12 AM Trevor Thistle via CANUFNET <
canufnet at list.web.net> wrote:

> Hi Ian,
>
> Here in Edmonton I have been working almost exclusively with tree
> conservation during Neighborhood Renewal (NR) for 13 years. NR is the
> process of reconstructing all sidewalks, curbs and streets in a
> neighborhood, as well as adding missing infrastructure.
>
> In our oldest neighborhoods I feel that trees growing in boulevards with
> separate sidewalks (curb on one side, sidewalk on the other side of the
> tree) have not really been impacted by the perceived restricted growing
> area, with the exception of roots literally engulfing curbs or overlapping
> sidewalks. I believe that the reason for this is that the construction
> standards that were in place decades ago (between neighborhood
> establishment and the time the sidewalk was last replaced) allowed for the
> construction of sidewalks on top of organic soil. So, in most cases, the
> trees had little challenge accessing soil beyond the boulevard.
>
> However, new construction standards include a gravel base and mechanical
> compaction under sidewalks. Also, greenfield construction is not what it
> used to be. Nowadays developers remove all of the precious topsoil from the
> land before building a new subdivision, then bring back enough topsoil to
> support the new sod. In these cases, regardless of the sidewalk design
> (mono or seperate) the trees do not have enough soil volume to support
> them. We do amend soil volumes with trenches in separate boulevards, but
> these are trenches in clay with still inadequate soil volumes. So my point
> is, depending on construction practices and standards, the configuration of
> the sidewalks in relation to the trees may have less impact on soil growing
> space than we think.
>
> but I would agree that trees in a more free to grow state, with little or
> no barriers to quality soil will outperform a tree in restricted growing
> space, and there will be fewer infrastructure / tree conflicts. This means
> that we will minimize tree related damages to infrastructure and
> construction related damages to trees in order to maintain that
> infrastructure.
>
>
> *Trevor Thistle Bsc. Forestry*
> *Urban Forester **| **PR-4760AM | **Tree Risk Assessment Qualified*
>
> OPEN SPACE OPERATIONS
>
> CITY OPERATIONS |  PARKS AND ROADS SERVICES
>
> 780-944-5577  OFFICE
>
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>
> City of Edmonton
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>
> 12830 58 Street NW
> <https://www.google.com/maps/search/City+of+Edmonton%C2%A0+12830+58+Street+NW?entry=gmail&source=g>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 29, 2021 at 9:21 AM Ian Wilson via CANUFNET <
> canufnet at list.web.net> wrote:
>
>> All, we are having a bit of an internal debate about standards for
>> local/residential roads and boulevards.  My observation is that trees that
>> are planted in a boulevard behind a monolithic sidewalk (sidewalk up
>> against the curb and planting area next to the property) generally do
>> better. They have access to more soil volume in the front yard, they get
>> more water and the boulevard is tidier since the homeowner treats it like
>> part of their yard. Also fewer issues with roots lifting sidewalks. Some of
>> our staff prefer the separated treed boulevard, for various reasons. Note,
>> I’m not talking about busier roads where the trees in boulevards help to
>> form a barrier from traffic.
>>
>>
>>
>> We don’t have a lot of good examples here that directly show a
>> comparison. Does anybody have some photos that might show the performance
>> of trees on one side of the road in a separated boulevard, vs. trees on the
>> other side behind the sidewalk?
>>
>>
>>
>> Below is an example that doesn’t exactly show this, but it does show the
>> value of soil volume, with the trees on the left side being able to access
>> the lawn area behind the sidewalk, vs. the trees in “coffins” on the right.
>> These are lindens planted at the same time.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *Ian Wilson*
>> Infrastructure Operations Manager | City of Kelowna
>> 250-469-8842 | iwilson at kelowna.ca
>> Submit a request for service on the go | kelowna.ca
>>
>> *I acknowledge that my workplace is located on the traditional,
>> ancestral, unceded territory of the syilx/Okanagan people**.*
>>
>>
>>
>
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-- 
Oliver K. Reichl, B.E.S.(Hons)
-----------
Sent from my mobile phone.
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