AROUND THE GARDEN

Last week, with the remains of Hurricane Irene so visible on every block, proper tree pruning was an inevitable topic. As a member of the Middletown Urban Forestry Commission, I have a particular interest in street trees.

For a tree-lover, a walk down many streets is pretty heart-breaking. It’s like going to the animal shelter and realizing you can’t help all those abandoned animals – yet it feels as if you should do something.

Urban foresters all over the country fret about the problems we face: how to have trees as amenities, as climate-improvers, as shields from increasingly hotter summer days. Cars, kids, bikes, paving, salt and – especially – utility wires are the enemies of a healthy tree canopy over our streets and highways.

The U.S. Forest Service has studied the health of street trees and found that their average life span is a little over seven years. That doesn’t mean that most of them die when they turn seven, of course – it’s the early deaths that bring down that average so drastically. Poorly planted, unwatered trees might last only six months, while a properly selected tree planted in an adequate space, pruned occasionally and watered regularly for its first couple of years, might live until it outgrows its welcome.

Since Middletown acquired a Tree Ordinance and a City Forester, street trees have been selected carefully to accommodate wires. In the past twenty years, only a few large-scale plantings have been done, mainly in the downtown area. Dozens of ornamental trees were planted in the North End during a sewer separation project. Many of those small trees are under utility wires, but rarely need to be pruned.

Sadly, these are not trees that provide much shade. The classic image of a New England town always includes large shade trees whose branches arch over the streets and sidewalks. In the last decade or so, a trend has begun for planting “set-back” trees – trees that are planted on lawns rather than close to the road. This achieves many of the objectives of urban tree planting – shade and reduced air pollution, less urban flooding, and beautified neighborhoods. Certainly, cars are less likely to run into them, and utility tree-pruners will have fewer reasons to prune them.

Still, the look is not the same and the trees don’t shade the hot spots – those heat sinks known as asphalt streets. Trees can be traffic calmers, but they must be close to the street to do that.

One solution is to plant large shade trees near the street on the sides that have no wires, and plant either smaller trees or set-back trees on the sides with wires. (Underground wires would be so much better, but there’s not much chance of that in this lifetime!)

This is what the Forest Service says about utility pruning:

“While not universally practiced, many utility companies continue the practice of "topping" or "round-over" pruning. This technique describes a method of pruning where cuts are made at arbitrary points on a branch along a uniform plane within the crown. The resulting crown form is artificially uniform following pruning. Unfortunately, topping causes more problems than it solves. Because the tree sprouts grow rapidly, the tree must be pruned frequently.

Two commonly accepted pruning alternatives are "lateral drop crotch pruning," also known as "natural pruning," and "side-pruning." Lateral or natural pruning requires the tree trimmer to pick out the branches growing toward the lines and remove them where they attach to the next lateral limb. Properly placed cuts produce few sprouts and natural growth rates. The next cycle of trimming requires fewer cuts than the topping approach, because the problem branches were removed during the previous cycle and sprout growth has been slower. This method is used both on trees growing beneath or to the side of utility lines.”

High Street has some telling examples: on the west side between Church and Washington Streets are some of the saddest-looking maples you will ever see. After years of being assaulted, they have finally admitted defeat: one tree after another has lost its leaves and begun to drop its branches, too.

On the east side, near Church Street, a Princeton elm was planted several years ago by a fraternity. The tree is flourishing, providing a beautiful patch of shade in sharp contrast to the sad maples opposite.

The Princeton elm is still young, but it is an exceptionally well-suited tree for the site. Planted close to the street, it seems impervious to salt spray from plows. Whoever planted the tree installed a small wooden fence to protect it from passing cars and bikes.

A type of American elm, the Princeton is fast-growing, disease-resistant, and native. Like any young tree, it could benefit from some pruning – just enough to keep its branches from crowding, and to raise the canopy so that passersby aren’t whacked in the face.

If you agree with me that Middletown’s quality of life would be improved by the relatively minor cost of planting 200 appropriate street trees in 2012, let’s all talk to the candidates who are currently campaigning for office. I would be happy to hear from both tax-payers and candidates!