By Kim Ballard, Project Canopy, kim.ballard@maine.gov
Photo credit: David Lee, bugwood.org
This article was first published on the website of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Forestry. Reprinted with permission.
As urban foresters, we are often asked, “Why do you recommend planting a non-native tree in front of my house/on my sidewalk/in that parking lot?” The question is complex and has as many answers as there are environments in Maine. But it all boils down to “right tree, right place.”
Maine is the most forested state in the nation. Along with our beloved state tree, the eastern white pine, our forests are full of sugar maple, red oak, white birch and eastern hemlock. If you get a chance to wander through these native woods, you’ll notice that the shady air is cooler, moister and perhaps not as breezy as the air around your neighborhood sidewalks. Trees planted in our downtowns face a whole host of conditions – solar reflection, drought, soil compaction, road salt, tunneling winds that forest trees rarely encounter. Can you imagine a majestic white pine on Congress Street in Portland? Even if it could survive, it certainly wouldn’t be very happy. Our downtowns are NOT native spaces, and they cannot support our native species appropriately.
Continue reading “Are Native Trees The Right Fit For Our Downtowns?”
You may have participated in this survey led by DNR Urban Forestry Coordinator Don Kissinger in 2020 (if so, thank you!) Wisconsin municipalities with more than 2,500 residents were asked a series of questions about the types of trees they prefer to plant (such as root stock type and caliper size), which lesser-used species they had successfully planted, which species they cannot find but would like to plant, and whether they use a gravel bed.
