Watering trees is in the bag
Q: I’ve noticed quite a number of young or newly planted trees about St. Catharines that have a green garbage-type bag at their bases. Is this something new in protecting young trees?
A: The city has a new bag of tricks when it comes to tree care.
Green bags wrapped around the base of young tree trunks in St. Catharines are slowly releasing water in a pilot project this summer.
The city acquired 400 Treegator bags in July and August to use on newly planted trees or smaller established ones.
“It’s a slow release watering so that it provides a deep water saturation,” said city horticultural technician Mike Anderson. “You don’t get any runoff — the water absorbs through the soil into the roots where it’s needed.”
Anderson said the bags are very popular and are used by municipalities across North America.
St. Catharines decided to try them out because of the extreme drought conditions this summer. The city found it couldn’t get out to all the trees that needed the water.
With the help of the green advisory committee, which paid half the costs, the city purchased bags for some of the younger trees that don’t have as deep a root system.
The bags are a plastic and nylon material with a zipper on the side, which Anderson said makes them easy to install. They have a reservoir inside that is filled with 34 to 45 litres of water that saturates out into the tree slowly over 24 hours.
At $23.79 apiece, they have a fiveyear lifespan and can be removed and reused at other locations.
Anderson said the system is likely saving the city water because it is more efficient without the runoff that comes with watering extremely dry soil.
St. Catharines plants 1,200 to 1,500 trees a year.
Anderson said the bags have been a success this summer, so it’s possible they’ll purchase more in the future for additional young trees.
Q: I drive on Cataract Road between Welland and St. Catharines quite often. Can you please inform me about why the speed limit is 50 km/h, the same as that of a city street? I have been on many similar roads in the area that have an increased limit as compared to the city. Furthermore, there are many roads that not only have a higher limit but are more windy than Cataract.
A: While most straight roads lean toward a high speed limit, Thorold’s engineering manager Sean Dunsmore said there are reasons why Cataract is capped at 50 km/h.
For one, Dunsmore said, there are multiple residences with driveways that front the road. On top of that, sight lines from intersections are an issue. Drivers have to be able to see certain distances either way.
“We don’t believe Cataract has that ability all the way through,” he said. “We believe that increasing the speed limit would create a safety issue, so we were unwilling to do that.” Q: Why did the city of Thorold install two new three-way stops on Cataract Road at Barron and McSherry — two roads that have no exit? I can understand the “relatively” new stop sign at the top of the hill but, in all honesty, it seems a bit overkill on the two new streets that don’t see much traffic.
A: The three-way stops were installed to try to slow drivers down on Cataract Road.
Thorold engineering manager Sean Dunsmore said the city received complaints from neighbours in the area about how fast drivers were going on Cataract.
In response, the city did a traffic study that found most drivers on Cataract were in excess of 10 kilometres over the speed limit. That triggered traffic calming measures on the road.
The city held a public meeting, received comments and designed the two three-way stops at Barron and McSherry. It also installed yield signs for slow-moving vehicles because there are farmers in the area and homes with children that front onto Cataract.
Still to be installed are radar signs that will tell drivers how fast they are going. Similar signs are on Merritt Road and Ormond Street.