City Trees

30 CityTREES In Surrey, British Columbia we have a name for the beleaguered tall evergreen trees that have had their crowns raised excessively: the "Surrey palm" (see photo). But what if Surrey were to plant actual palms? And yes, that is Surrey, BC, Canada. Three years ago I moved from the 42nd parallel in Massachusetts to the 49th parallel in British Columbia. With a seven degree difference in latitude, I did not expect it to be warmer in my new setting and to have a plant palette that even remotely overlapped with my experience living in Miami, Florida! So when asked to explore the positive sides of planting palms in Canada, I took two steps back before saying yes to the challenge. I accepted because the use of palms in this region is growing. In Surrey we have a bylaw (known as an ordinance in the U.S.) to regulate tree removal and replacement. If a tree is removed, the lot owner is required to replace it with two trees or pay the equivalent value to the City's Green City Fund. Without debating if this is too much or not enough, the purpose is to provide some positive contribution back to the environment. We have prohibitions in place, such as no dwarf species or grafted weeping trees or short-stature fruit trees, as these are all seen as providing insufficient ecological benefits in return. However, we don't have restrictions against narrow fastigiate trees or small-maturing species generally, which don't contribute a lot of canopy. The question was posed as to whether a palm is ever an appropriate substitute for a replacement tree. While my old-school gut screamed "No!" there may actually be some appropriate applications for palms in Surrey. While bigger is typically better when assessing envi- ronmental payoff, bigger isn't always possible in dense urban spaces. It can be especially challenging in loca- tions where a tree is proposed after the fact on a site that is already constructed, and where concrete and infrastructure limit the soil or canopy space. In any scenario where soil, light, and nutrients are limited, is planting a medium to large tree going to provide the environmental benefits it promises on paper? Perhaps it would be better to plant a tree that will grow to maturity and remain healthy, rather than take a chance on a tree that gets diseased or dies young due to a lack of resources. These windmill palms (Trachycarpus fortu- nei) were planted around 25 years ago along Beach Avenue on English Bay in Vancouver, BC. These palms are planted along a short segment of a bike path that has a large variety of beautiful, healthy shade trees. People typically have very strong opinions about these palm trees having been planted here. Photo by Owen Croy

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