Trees need to be more than planted
As a long-time grower, it's been heartening to see more focus on the value of trees. But I am concerned that, while we are planting trees, we are not taking good care of them.
It's depressing to see the state of trees, especially those planted in the last 5-10 years around new commercial and housing developments. Many of these young trees are in decline. They appear half-dead or dead. The most frustrating part, and hardest to understand, is that these are businesses paying landscapers yet it would appear these companies do not know how to care for these trees.
Why these trees are in decline is not hard to understand. Just look down at the base of the tree. Many look like phone poles with mulch piled high on their bark. This is called "volcano mulching." Trees should have a curve outward at the bottom. It's the tree flare and is one of the most important places on trees where their trunks go into the ground to become roots. They need air at that juncture, which is why the mulch should not go up to the trunk at all. It suffocates them slowly and encourages diseases to grow there.
Trees are most alive just under their bark; it's where they grow, receive water and food, and where all the interesting chemical impulses happen that we have come to understand as trees' internal communication. Weedwhacking their bark to cut grass or weeds also brings injury and early death. You can see this in declining trees that have grass up to the trunk and where bark is missing.
Grass has evolved a fundamentally different root structure than trees. So, when we water grass weekly and add chemical fertilizers for grass, it is to the detriment of any nearby trees.
We need to plant more trees, that's very important, but we really need to learn about how trees grow and take better care of them. And stop paying people to kill them.
Melissa MacKinnon
Niskayuna The writer is a Schenectady Master Gardener Volunteer
and Farms Manager for Schenectady Community
Ministries.