Trees in KC (ongoing)

[Cratedigger]

https://x.com/prairieczar/status/172052 ... ncU5iHr37Q

This caught my eye on my timeline today. I don’t know anywhere near enough about this stuff to have an opinion (Fang I’d probably trust your judgement) but the city’s monomania on trees is interesting

[FangKC]

Prairie land is a better carbon sink. I saw something about this on TV recently. It might have been that documentary on The Buffalo on PBS, but I could be wrong.

Trees are also a carbon sink, but less so. Trees have advantages prairie doesn't along city streets though. The biggest benefit is the shade and cooling of the air. Streets with a good tree canopy can be several degrees cooler than streets with none. They also help prevent concrete and asphalt from absorbing so much heat.They are more pleasant to walk down. Houses in shade require less energy to cool. So while they aren't the carbon sink prairie is, trees help keep us from producing as much carbon from air conditioning usage -- depending on how electricity is being generated.

When I bought my house, there was not a tree on the property. I planted a lot of trees and landscaping and it made a huge difference after awhile. My cooling bill is less. My yard also fills with birds during the hot of day since they seek shelter because my yard is cooler. My grass under shade doesn't grow as fast either, so I mow less.

I agree about some trees not really being great for parked cars. However, a lot of trees drop things. Maples drop the helicopter seeds, oaks drop nuts, etc. Pear tree limbs are among the worse for falling on cars during windstorms. My neighbor has a humongous conifer tree and it drops needles everywhere. He's out sweeping his driveway every day.

It's never good to mave a monoculture of trees because of disease. It's always better to have variety of types. It's just some types are annoying for vehicle owners. Some trees shedding can also clog storm drains.

Some of the fires in Canada are a result of monoculture.

[moderne]

While we need as much prairie landscape as possible and planting of natives en masse should be encouraged, in an urban setting trees are uniquely beneficial. With increasing average temperatures the beneficial shade can be a life saver.

[FangKC]

On the hottest of days, people often seek out a parking spot under a tree just because the shade will keep their car cooler.

On another note, I noticed today that the City has planted a lot of new street trees in the area around Admiral and Paseo. I assume it's the City because that area really doesn't have a neighborhood association or CID.

I used to live on Washington Street on Quality Hill and one of the things I liked most about that area was the street trees and shade along sidewalks.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1032464 ... entry=ttu

[moderne]

Might the trees at Admiral and Paseo be part of the Paseo Gateway improvements?

[slimwhitman]

Speaking of the politics of trees...

We used to live south of the Plaza years ago in the Wornall Homestead area. When I was growing up years ago, my parents made the mistake of planting a maple tree in the outer lawn (the area between the sidewalk and the street where property rights are iffy). The city came and took out the maple tree that we had bought and paid for, then planted a Moraine Locust tree to match the others that had been planted in our block. Those locust trees were ALWAYS dropping something. Copious piles of spent blossoms in the spring would fall down your windshield and clog up your car vents, then come spraying out at you when you turned on the blower. In the summer, the trees would drop juicy green seed pods. Those trees were incredibly hard to kill. And don't park under them for any length of time unless you want your car covered in bird poop. Even the sidewalks under the trees were nasty. The dropped pods got ground into the concrete and turned it an unappetizing shade of brown.

Some time later, the city came and planted another Moraine Locust seed-pod dropper in another location in the front of our house where a Dutch Elm tree had died and had been removed. Shortly after the second tree had been planted, I got up one morning and noticed that both of the locust trees had disappeared. Nothing left but stumps. Funny how both trees had disappeared in the space of a single night. I asked my parents about it, and they said that they had no idea what had happened. The city never replaced those trees.

Don't get me wrong. Trees bring a lot of benefits to a street. The trees along Meyer Boulevard between Brookside and Meyer Circle are beautiful. I'm guessing that in the wake of Dutch Elm disease, the city was looking for something that was hardy and resistant to disease. But locust trees are not the tree to plant next to a residential street or a sidewalk, because they constantly drop things.

That's just a weird story. Removed live trees for no reason? I wonder if the right hand forgot to talk to the left hand in the parks/forestry division. It is also possible that some overly ambitious tree-hound in the HOA was making those decisions. Honeylocust trees on the market today are far cleaner with no seed pods. They are one of the most salt tolerant trees, making them good for urban areas, but that should not be a concern on a residential street. That story can sour someone on street trees even though they are really important to the neighborhood.

[moderne]

No such thing as a Dutch Elm. The disease is Dutch Elm Disease, but here in KC it attacked the beautiful arching American Elms that made streets into a tunnel of green shade. Now we have varieties of elm developed that are resistant and being widely planted as along Broadway through Penn Valley Park.

[FangKC]

https://x.com/DrewMitrisin/status/17274 ... 12519?s=20

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.0673069 ... ?entry=ttu

[herrfrank]

No such thing as a Dutch Elm. The disease is Dutch Elm Disease, but here in KC it attacked the beautiful arching American Elms that made streets into a tunnel of green shade. Now we have varieties of elm developed that are resistant and being widely planted as along Broadway through Penn Valley Park.

Although Dutch Elm disease spread in KC mostly in the 1960s, it had already killed trees in Eastern cities as early as the 1940s. Much of JC Nichols world had streetside Elms, and the city replaced them en masse with pin oaks -- you can tell which streets had elms because they are now all covered in acorns. LOL On the Kansas side, the dying Elms were replaced mostly by homeowners, so a mix of different trees lines those streets.

We had a streetside American Elm until the 1970s as did a few neighbors (near the KCCC) -- every year we paid a tree doctor to inject it with something, but eventually the disease got to it and the rest on the block and they all died around 1980, to be replaced by my Dad with the Kansas state tree, a cottonwood, which upset the town arborist who later removed it and now a golden locust stands there. Dad was always amused by the town war on cottonwoods (because of the "cotton" getting in air conditioners). We also had a (resistant) Siberian Elm along the street, and that tree died of old age and was removed just this past summer 2023.

This Dutch Elm disease, plus other tree diseases like the 1920s American Chestnut Blight and the 1990s Emerald Ash Borer demonstrate why planting monocultures is so unwise.

In Princeton NJ, horticulturalists found an area of American Elm trees with a genetic anomaly making them naturally immune. Those trees were propagated and are now widely available at nurseries.

[TheLastGentleman]

https://x.com/DrewMitrisin/status/17274 ... 12519?s=20

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.0673069 ... ?entry=ttu

Benton is interesting, maybe one of the few places where a Boulevard of the “famous” parks and boulevards system actually looks as-advertised

[moderne]

Funny, cottonwood and siberian elm are poor tree choices just about in any setting. Not only do cottonwoods clog up AC and window screens, they are very hydrophilic and like to invade sewer lines. Siberian elms are soft, weak, and brittle.
Trees on Benton and others on blvds benefit from having a much wider planting strip between street and sidewalk.

[FangKC]

It's weird that the two streets on each side of Benton don't have any trees lining the street.

[moderne]

MO legislature considering bill prohibiting sales of callery pears and other invasives.

[swid]

If you have a Callery/Bradford pear and cut it down this spring, you can register to get a free replacement tree.

[FangKC]

Push to Plant Trees in Kansas City Takes Root

...
Tree preservation will kick into high gear in June when a $12 million windfall grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture reaches city coffers. The influx will enable the city to provide greater care to our existing arboreal canopy, which includes many aging trees planted after World War II.
...
Trees prevent an estimated 1 billion gallons of stormwater runoff a year, at an estimated value of $11 million.

On the electric bill side, “the cooling effect of one healthy tree is equivalent to 10 room-sized air conditioners operating 20 hours a day,” according to the report.
...
“Grasslands should be a key part of Kansas City’s climate plan,” Garrett said.

While a stand of native grass may be less dramatic than a 300-year-old towering oak tree, its extensive root system is equally important when it comes to sucking carbon dioxide out of the air.

“It’s all below ground,” Garrett said. “If you flipped it upside down and would see the root system” it would amaze. “Prairies store carbon. Grasslands are as good at sequestering carbon as forests are.”
...

https://flatlandkc.org/news-issues/push ... akes-root/

[moderne]

No mention of a watering program. Such a waste of effort and money and lack of common sense.

[Cratedigger]

No mention of a watering program. Such a waste of effort and money and lack of common sense.

https://x.com/BrianDavidPlatt/status/17 ... 94296?s=20

A lot of these funds will go to tree planting, maintenance, and preservation (watering, pruning, etc). Our trees cost a couple hundred dollars or so each depending on species.

[shinatoo]

Sapling trees are much better than 2", and up, trees. They don't need regular watering except in extreme conditions and they grow a better root system and are easier to plant. And you can pick them up for a few bucks. However, their worst enemy is lawn mowers, so you have to mark them and protect them well. They make tree tubes that are three feet tall that can go over a 6" sapling and won't inhibit their grown and cost a few cents. The tubes degrade after a few years.

[moderne]

City manager's response was to my e-mail. I am impressed, but will be more impressed to see if it actually happens. I told him how I tote buckets of water across traffic to the median and have kept a couple 3rd year trees alive while most of the others in the neighborhood are dead.

[Cratedigger]

City manager's response was to my e-mail. I am impressed, but will be more impressed to see if it actually happens. I told him how I tote buckets of water across traffic to the median and have kept a couple 3rd year trees alive while most of the others in the neighborhood are dead.

Thank you for doing this!