Excerpt from Part 2: Selecting
Trees like an Urban Forester
One of the best guides to site assessment and tree
selection for the eastern U.S. is provided by the Cornell
Urban Horticulture Institute and is called Recommended
Urban Trees, within which is a terrific "Site Assessment
Checklist" with detailed notes on how to complete it.
The process of site assessment has you consider things
like sun and shade exposure, USDA Hardiness Zone,
microclimates (for instance, the south side of your house
versus the north), soil texture, soil pH, and drainage.
The checklist in Recommended Urban Trees includes
visual assessment of existing plants—both cultivated
and wild. Noting what's growing well—and what's
not—will give you insights into the site conditions.
For instance, if rhododendrons, azaleas, and/or >>
The small-maturing white fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus)
could be a good match for a site with overhead utility wires.
Sugar maples (Acer saccharum) and other street
trees in the tree lawn in Pine Plains, New York.
Small, newly planted trees in the urban forest are
sometimes subject to the further indignity of van-
dalism. They are extra vulnerable to drought, weed
competition, and damage by mowers and string trim-
mers. It's rough out there for mature trees, too. In
parks or even alongside your driveway, notice the
state of the trees that are closest to foot or car traffic.
They will often show signs of stress, like dead branch
tips, because their roots have been compacted.
Urban forestry gives us tools to analyze a site and then
match the right tree to the particular conditions of that
site. It asks, what are the toughest tree species for these
stressful conditions? How can we best prepare the site
before we plant the tree, and what is the best way to
plant? How do we best care for them in the delicate
first few years of establishment, and all their lives?
Urban forestry gives us tools to analyze a site and then match
the right tree to the particular conditions of that site.
urban-forestry.com 33
