Natural Notes: Trees and Construction, Keeping Trees Alive in an Urban Forest

This post consists of my notes from a lecture on trees in construction sites as part of a training to become a certified arborist by the International Society of Arborculture.  The speaker was Lindsay Ivanyi, a natural resources specialist with the Forest Preserves of Cook County and her lecture took place on January 28, 2015 at the Salt Creek Resource Management facility in Willow Springs, Illinois.  

 Construction damage is the most common cause of tree damage and death in urban areas.  There is usually severe injury to the crown and trunk (broken branches and trunk lacerations).  Cutting of the roots from digging and trenching activities, as well as lowering the grade of the surface can cause a lot of tree damage and fatalities.  

 Compaction should be avoided at all costs.  Compaction reduces oxygen that roots take in and it reduces the ability of the roots to absorb minerals and nutrients.  

 Smothering of roots is also a problem because 90% of tree roots are in the upper few inches of the soil.  In fact, roots can extend 3 times the length of the dripline of the tree (see figure 1).  Small diameter roots absorb the most water and nutrients.  
Figure 1:  Tree roots can extend 3 times the length of the tree's dripline.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Windy City Cactus: Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus

Image
When you think of Chicago, you probably don't think of sand dunes, prairies, or large oak trees.  Yet despite Chicago being the third largest city in the United States and heavily impacted by urban sprawl and industrial blight, there remains thousands of acres of greenspace with wetlands, open woods, sandy beaches...and some rather surprising flora. The pictures below were not shot in Arizona nor in Southwest California, but were in fact taken at the 63rd street beach on a recently restored sand dune near Hyde Park in Chicago, Illinois.  They are the eastern prickly pear cactus ( Opuntia humifusa ) . Figure 1:  Eastern prickly pear cactus, a native plant to the Chicago region and the only native cactus to the Great Lakes area.   The genus Opuntia is much more common out west where they have many different species, but in the Great Lakes and Midwest regions, the eastern prickly pear is the only native cactus.  It tends to be a little bit smaller than its western counterp
Read more

Natural Notes: Animals of the Night

Image
Are you a night owl?  If you're an Illinois wildlife species, than chances are, yes!  However, many animals besides owls are active at night.  In fact, the majority of wildlife species in Illinois are hunting, gathering mates, establishing territories, and moving about during the nighttime hours! A daytime walk on a trail through a forest preserve might yield some common wildlife sightings such as gray squirrels ( Sciurus carolinensis ) or sparrows.  Most animals that people see around Illinois are active during the day, or   diurnal.   Humans are a great example of a diurnal animal.   Other animals though are most active active at different times of the day (figure 1).  Late in the afternoon or early in the day, many folks encounter white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ).  Deer are a great example of a wildlife species that is crepuscular , or active at dawn or dusk. Figure 1:  In Illinois, most wildlife species are more active at certain times of the day.  For thos
Read more

Virginia Pineapple? The fascinating family of Bromeliaceae

Image
Who hasn't tried pineapple before?  It always seems to end up in fruit salads at family reunions, there's always someone in the crowed ordering "Hawain pizza", and the grocery stores always seem stocked full with showy pineapples displaying their rough-textured, compartmentalized skin with bizarre green leaves on top (Photo A).  To most people living in temperate regions such as most of the lower 48 United States, pineapples are nothing short of exotic and unusual - and not like anything we have growing in the wild on our landscape...or do we? Photo A:  A pineapple grows wild along a woodland edge in a tropical park in  Ecuador, South America. Pineapples are in the family Bromeliacea, which includes a large group of mostly tropical plants that are primarily  epiphytes - plants that grow on top of other plants (see photo B). Photo B: Bromiliads, shown in the center of this photo, are a common group of tropical epiphytes throughout rain forests and
Read more