Santa Monica Community Forest & Public Landscape Superintendent Walt Warriner makes transplanting look easy. Photo Courtesy of City of Santa Monica
administration had a keen sense of awareness and shared these ideals and ensured every alternative was considered before a tree had to be removed. Ultimately, the best candidates were relocated.
I will admit the cost was considerable. Was this truly tree preservation? Everyone agrees a lot of young trees could have been purchased and planted for those dol- lars. This is typically the number one argument against tree moves. However, what the administration was doing was making a statement that no matter what the project, regardless of the funding source and regard- less of the politics, they would protect the trees at any cost. That kind of support sends a clear message to all parties involved that we take our tree preservation very seriously. I often joked that folks were not willing to stick a shovel in the ground without calling our depart-
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ment first; when it comes to the urban forestry industry, we all know you cannot put a dollar value on that kind of compliance.
All of our tree moves were performed by Environmental Design, a company that has performed these services all over the country. My department's involvement included all of the pre- and post-care including iden- tifying construction threats, determining preservation candidates, and getting the trees in the best shape possible in order to provide a baseline for tree condition after the move. To ensure post-move survival in central Texas, we followed the three Ws: water, water, and water. An adequate water supply would ultimately ensure a 100 percent survival rate.
Very often these trees were relocated into or across active construction projects. Continual monitoring was
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