With all of the money that is slated to go to planting trees and increasing Asheville’s tree canopy, it is critically important that the trees are planted and maintained with basic care.
Walking around downtown Asheville recently, I was reminded of the haphazard treatment of many of the urban trees around town. “Mulch volcanoes” piled up around the trunks of trees create anaerobic conditions and prevent necessary gas exchange between the plant’s roots and the atmosphere. Recently poorly planted “ball in burlap” trees, which come at a high cost, can be seen around town rapidly declining in health and fated to die without serious intervention.
Planting trees is important, as is maintaining them, but it takes training to do it properly. The extra effort to plant a tree well and mulch it properly is very marginal compared to the cost of losing the trees we plant.
I hope that the new urban forester and city arborist can work together to ensure that existing trees are maintained with quality of work in mind and that future trees are planted in a way that does not guarantee their demise.
— Noah Poulos
Marion
Maybe Marion wants to chip in for our taxes to have an opinion?
It’s true and so many people have NO clue that their own trees need attention…so many.