I'm glad that the dead trees are being removed. I was afraid they might be left there until the PanAm Games were on. We don't want the world to see dead trees on our main shopping street. Now that I've been paying more attention to trees in this city I can't help but notice how many dead, lop-sided and ugly trees there are in this city. When you compare the trees here to just about any other major city, it's pretty pathetic. Why can't this city get trees right?
A bit too generalist.
St. George Street has great street trees. There was a need to replace several in the first 2-3 years after planting.
But overall very good performance. The gold standard on street trees is 70% survival beyond 3 years (after planting), after which most are fine, if in good conditions.
St. George is the gold-standard for how to treat street trees w/long trenches/planters providing lots of room for the roots; a diversity of species, mostly well chosen, and intensive
maintenance early on.
Bloor was mainly a product of A) poor species choice; B)fall planting.....
..though I'll add I'm not a fan of the 'water bag' system being used for new trees, I haven't seen any studies yet on its efficacy, but I wander by and find a lot of them have no water in them, suggesting they are not refilled often enough to replace the benefit of a more robust watering program (especially the 1st year after planting).
As to other main streets in the City, many still have trees in those old concrete boxes which are way too small; when you see something that actually did well in one, you have to congratulate the tree! In most cases a healthy tree's roots would out grow those boxes w/in 3-4 years, so the trees end up short of moisture, and nutrients trying to sustain an ever larger mass out of that tiny un-expanding box.
Even the first generation tree pits are pretty poor, they let very little water in, and provide only marginally more growing space than the old boxes.
Note, as a rule of thumb; most species of trees will (given the room) grow roots THREE times as wide as the crown (meaning the roots want to reach three times however far the branches go)
High quality street tree performance requires Right species, planted at the right time, in the right conditions, and aggressive watering/maintenance for at least the 1st season, but ideally 2-3 years.
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As to salt, which is very much an issue, there are many alternatives, but, in fairness to the city, they vary in efficacy and are often more expensive.
I would like to see a move towards lower-sodium content 'brines', better application strategies (most salt spreaders are quite indiscriminate and aren't even adjusted based on road/sidewalk size to spray where and as needed.
Consideration of heated catch basin covers and curbs at major corners would also help reduce ice buildup.
Gravel/sand can be used too, which is more about adding traction than melting snow/ice; but it can be an issue for building up in drainage systems and spring cleanup.
Tree trenches or pits, could also be lipped to reduce salt-water run-off in winter, though this also reduces ground-water infiltration in the summer.
There are many trade-offs in design choices.
Bottom line being we (as a City) can do better; there have been significant improvements in recent years; and City Forestry deserves credit for demanding improved streetscape
design for tree pits/planters.
But much is left to be done if we hope to one day see towering oaks or elms on main streets.
