Atlantic Forestry September 2017

AFR: Two things may be worth adding to your excellent edition on urban forestry (AFR July 2017).
    The first thing is the advantage for municipal units, parks, and cemeteries to have their own small tree nursery. Anyone who has a park maintenance staff with equipment can create a nursery on a vacant property near the shop and grow small trees into large caliper ones. Expensive transport and preparation can be avoided, and trees can be readily available when needed. It can also be a place to save trees that get removed if size is suitable. Any operation with a backhoe can transplant a tree within hours of its removal. The key is to keep the whole operation simple, keeping it spaced to allow mowing and transplanting.
    The second thing is the need for arborists that climb. There are too many arborists who will only work out of a bucket. This only works on the street side of trees, often leaving the backside untended. Trees in parks and cemeteries are often unreachable by bucket anyway. Also, as soon as a truck is in the street, expensive traffic control is needed. The climber may not be as fast, but a lot of costs can be reduced or eliminated.
Charles Jess
Yarmouth, N.S.

(Glad you enjoyed our urban forestry issue, Charles. Thanks for sharing these good points. Coincidentally, longtime AFR contributor Gary Saunders recently sent us a couple photos of Truro arborist Gordie Brookhouse at work – clearly a guy who knows how to climb trees. Check it out on pg. 7 of this issue. DL)