KCRag Forum

Elrod wrote: ↑Fri Nov 03, 2023 4:34 pm 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.

moderne wrote: ↑Mon Nov 06, 2023 12:03 pm 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 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 23, 2023 3:13 am https://x.com/DrewMitrisin/status/17274 ... 12519?s=20

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

...
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.”
...

moderne wrote: ↑Wed Mar 06, 2024 11:47 am No mention of a watering program. Such a waste of effort and money and lack of common sense.

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.

moderne wrote: ↑Wed Mar 06, 2024 5:20 pm 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.