City Trees is a premier publication focused on urban + community forestry. In each issue, you’ll learn how to best manage the trees in your community and more!
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/41336
relocating existing trees is a standard procedure. Removing a living tree that could be transplant- ed would be a politically unsavory undertaking. Planning ahead for the relocation of large trees means that the project budget, not the Forestry Division budget, will pay for the move. It also pro- vides plenty of time to scout out underground utili- ties that may be in the area. Even though planned moves are ideal, there are times that they too can present challenges. We have a neigh- borhood organization called the Concerned Citizens of Marshall Terrace (CCMT) that has operated a tree nurs- ery for decades. As the trees grow, the CCMT leadership makes them available to us for transplanting. Despite many attempts at developing a plan for the nursery, the CCMT nursery volunteers cannot stop themselves from haphazardly adding new trees to the nursery. It's not that there is anything wrong with the tree types (primarily buckeyes, walnuts, oaks, and pines). It's their proximity to one another in the nursery that makes them tricky to extract. Rather than rile the local do-good- ers, we work hard to accommodate their donations. The good news is that today there are over 1000 trees from the CCMT nursery that have been transplanted into Minneapolis parks. Surprise transplants are our least favorite because of the disruption they cause to our regularly scheduled work. These transplants almost always have a politi- cal connection. For example, during a park improve- ment project there were seven Kentucky coffeetrees (Gymnocladus dioicus) that were thought to be beyond the footprint of the work zone. As the work commenced, it was discovered that all seven of the trees needed to either be relocated or removed. We use these situations to our advantage by rescuing the trees when no one else can. Using a rented tree spade, we quickly moved the trees to another park. After the work is completed, we make sure that our elected Board of Commissioners knows how we went out of our way to make this happen. Finally, there are the enforced transplants. These are the situations where we flex our municipal muscle to save trees that are worth the effort rather than see them be removed. This usually takes place when an outside agency, such as our Metropolitan Council or County, is overseeing a project that happens to threaten public trees. Our biggest success with an enforced transplant took place when our local County informed us about a dozen trees that needed to be removed to accom- modate the replacement of a sewer line. What they did not know was that the trees in jeopardy were planted during an Arbor Day celebration that www.urban-forestry.com 27