By: Frank Zanaboni, ASLA

It seems I’m hearing more and more concerns about trees in our urban areas getting in the way and causing problems with visibility, animal control and yard waste. Personally, I think trees are just getting a bad rap.

Let’s start with the root of the problem and work our way up. Roots – they seem to crack and lift up the pavement causing stubbed toes and extra work for attorneys. If you must get out the chain saw so be it, but - the truth is, some trees are less prone to surface roots than others and the proper selection before planting could have solved the potential problem. Now, if you must plant that blue ribbon variety with big roots, then use root guards that direct the surface roots down and deep into the ground; cheap insurance to safeguard against a major liability.

Once you’ve picked out the perfect tree, with little roots, it still seems to grow too big, too quickly becoming a giant “bird house” for flocks of birds intent on adding to the “texture” of the adjacent pavement, table tops and car hoods. Once again, some species of trees are more prone to attract the feathered element. Trees with juicy berries, or tight branching structures of dark, dense leaves, make safe, comfortable, inviting roosts. So the first solution, once again, would be to pick the right variety of tree. If it’s too late and you are dealing with an existing problem tree, then selective pruning to open the canopy can help for starters, and, as a last resort, a technique used by fruit tree growers is to attach rubber snakes to the branches or mount a dummy owl on a roof close by to play mother nature’s game of survival of the fittest.

Now, once the birds have flown the coop and the roots are comfortably snuggled deep in the ground, what do you do with all of those piles and piles of leaves in the fall time? Rake’em and burn’em up right? Wrong – typically that’s against the City ordinance – so we rake’em and sweep’em and bag’em and then cart them off to the yard waste drop off area so we can pick them up and take them back home next Spring in the form of garden mulch. Not a bad cycle – pretty much the way Mother Nature intended it to be.

Now there are a couple of techniques that we can use to simplify the cycle and make it a little less labor intensive. Again, the answer lies in the proper tree selection. Trees with small leaves tend to cleanup quickly and with less mass. Trees with a less dense canopy tend to have fewer leaves and allow a quicker clean-up. Second, don’t be fooled by evergreen trees - they still loose their leaves they just do it all year long.

So, before you break out the chain saw or worse yet, “x” out the tree symbol on the plan, do some research with your Landscape Architect on different varieties of trees and together you can find the right tree that even the grandkids will enjoy.