Tree Maintenance

We are in the middle of a beautiful summer season and this is when we see more and more people out in their yards taking care of their trees, shrubs, and other greenery. We think it’s a good time to go over some “best practices when it comes to your trees.

Preservation Planning

Tree Preservation Wooded areas are preferred sites for residential development due to the aesthetic and environmental value of the trees, which can raise property values by as much as twenty percent. As such valuable sites, wooded lands are being rapidly developed as cities and suburbs expand. This development reduces the environmental and aesthetic benefits to the greater community.

Tree preservation is preferred to replacement, as a new tree requires twenty to thirty years to provide significant aesthetic, infrastructure, and environmental benefits. Unfortunately, trees are subject to many potentially deadly stresses during construction. Construction activity can cause tree death during a project or tree decline over several years, when the cause may not be as obvious. Trees must be carefully protected throughout the site development process to prevent damage.

How trees are damaged during construction surface and root zone impacts on construction sites can disrupt a tree’s interaction with its environment, leading to tree damage or death. Understanding these impacts and their severity is critical to successful preservation.

We will continue this series over the next few months covering a wide array of topics. Don’t forget, when you’re looking for the best tree maintenance company in Richland, we’d love the chance to earn your business.

We are in the middle of a beautiful summer season and this is when we see more and more people out in their yards taking care of their trees, shrubs, and other greenery. We think it’s a good time to go over some “best practices when it comes to your trees.

Common Definitions

Arborist: A specialist in the care of individual trees. Arborists are knowledgeable about the needs of trees and are trained and equipped to provide proper care. Top Tree LLC is a company who has employees who have achieved a level of knowledge in the art and science of tree care through at least three years of experience and have passed a comprehensive examination. We are also required to continue their education in order to maintain their certification, ensuring that their knowledge is updated on the latest arboriculture techniques.

Street Trees: Large canopy trees planted along existing or proposed public streets. Street trees may be within existing or proposed rights-of-way, but when outside of the public right of way, must be within fourteen feet of the edge of such rights-of-way.

Tree Canopy or Tree Cover: All areas of coverage by plant material exceeding five feet in height, and the extent of planted tree canopy at ten or twenty years maturity.

Tree Protection Zone: Area surrounding individual trees or groups of trees to remain during construction, and defined by fencing and signage as described below unless otherwise indicated. The Tree Protection Zone is 1.5 feet away in radial distance from the tree trunk for every inch in stem diameter. This area is also referred to as the critical root zone or critical root radius.

We will continue this series over the next few months covering a wide array of topics. Don’t forget, when you’re looking for the best tree maintenance company in Kennewick, we’d love the chance to earn your business.

We are in the middle of a beautiful summer season and this is when we see more and more people out in their yards taking care of their trees, shrubs, and other greenery. We think it’s a good time to go over some “best practices when it comes to your trees.

Best Management Practices Best management practices are technically correct and widely accepted dynamic practices and standards used by professional arborists, urban and community foresters, landscape architects and other tree care and landscape professionals. The goal of the best management practice is to provide basic and practical information on how to best accomplish the most important tree management activities. As standards and practices are updated, best management practice should also be updated to reflect the progression of the green industry in sustainable urban forestry and landscape management.

Introduction

Trees improve a community’s quality of life by providing environmental and aesthetic benefits such as shade, cooling, and wildlife habitat. Our urban trees are part of our infrastructure and are a valuable asset. Unlike other assets, however, trees are living entities and have basic biological requirements for survival and growth. As such, this unique asset must be actively managed and protected to maintain its health, function, safety, and aesthetic value. Man-made landscapes and our everyday lives keep us in close proximity with trees, recognizing their value as a community resource. This proximity may create conflict, especially in land preparation for construction. Keeping construction activities and trees separated is the easiest and most cost-efficient means to prevent undue stress and damage to such trees. Most trees will survive construction activity if kept separated from equipment, materials and trash. For best results, all phases of construction need to include procedures for the protection of trees. This handbook is to serve as a reference for tree preservation, transplanting and tree removal.

We will continue this series over the next few months covering a wide array of topics. Don’t forget, when you’re looking for the best tree maintenance company in the Tri-Cities, we’d love the chance to earn your business.