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If you don't want the street trees on your block to die, grab a bucket, fill it up and get to work

Responding to a complaint about street trees dying in this heat and drought on Columbia Road from Mass. Ave. to Quincy Street, Boston Parks and Recreation says:

The BPRD only waters newly planted trees and not existing established trees.

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Comments

...there'd be complaints about conservation in this heat.

You really can't win.

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It can't be done for all future installs, and it wouldn't make sense to install them retroactively, but building tree pits with drip irrigation built-in allows for the city to keep some of its trees healthier in drought conditions going forward.

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A neighbor could adopt-a-tree (even informally) and dump a few buckets of water now and then.

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of trees in the median of Gallivan Blvd by the 93 junction are dead and dying. Some have blown over and ripped out in the high winds. Seems they don't water them long enough for them to be "established"

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That stretch of trees was damaged this winter by vehicle impact, possibly city plows.

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State road and not very safe or practical for "adopt a tree" type program. Street trees where it is safe to water will love you back for the care with shade for years to come,

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On a slight tangent, there has to be a better way to plant street trees that doesn't create issues with overhead power lines.

I just watched as a crew removed a bunch of street trees in Newton that had grown into the overhead power lines. This was done after that area widely lost power after last week's storms due to downed lines.

I do wonder about the sanity of deliberately growing trees under power lines and then having to deal with both the trees and the lines. Most of the surviving trees have been horribly maimed with crowns removed and odd V and 90 degree shapes as they're pruned away from the lines. It's no wonder these trees fall every time there's a minor storm.

If you're going to water a tree, water at the drip line and do it early in the morning to prevent most of the water from being lost due to evaporation.

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Bury the power lines.

Street trees are a remarkably important public amenity, and large trees with significant canopies provide far more value than the small ornamentals.

Start burying more power lines. It costs more money, but street trees are really important to increasing the livability of the area -- so it's worth it IMO.

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Since buried lines cost orders of magnitude less to maintain, power companies are frequently forbidden by union contracts from burying them.

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Do you have anything to help us understand that - like a link to a news article or something?

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The towns and cities could plant trees that are the appropriate height for the overhead wires. When you purchase trees, the expected height of the tree is included in the description of the item.

If you (you being the town/city) know the power lines are 20 feet off the ground on most blocks in the area, and you order a Callery Pear (16-26 feet at full height), Chinese Elm (33-59 feet tall at full height), or a Swamp Maple (59-89 feet at full height), you are directly causing this problem by purchasing hundreds of trees that are too tall for the area they are going to be planted in.

But instead, Government Agency A plants whatever tree was on bulk-sale-clearance that year under the power lines, then Heavily Regulated Public Utility has to prune the trees back until they die, then Government Agency B chops down the dead tree and leaves a street baking in the sun until Government Agency A gets its act together and buys another bulk-sale-clearance pack of trees that aren't appropriate for the area just because they were cheap.

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Once a tree's root system is established, there is no real need to water it.

As an example, the grass along the Southwest Corridor Park is beyond brown, but the trees still have foliage- excepting the gypsy moth infected trees, of course.

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The other day I was walking the Mall on Comm Ave in Back Bay, noticing that the lawns were basically dead in spots, while the trees are fine. The mall lawns used to get watered but it looks like that hasn't happened for several weeks at least.

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Yes, once a tree is established it should not need additional watering... but that is if the tree is established under ideal conditions. Most street trees are not planted under ideal conditions. The roots are forced into tight spaces that never extend to the drip zone where Tree foliage sheds water to when it rains. When the water is pushed out to the edges like this, water hardly ever makes it to the small 3x4 box that the tree is planted in. This leads to decline in Tree health over time and premature failure. Selecting the right Plant for the right place does help, but we also need to push for extending the planting areas for better root development. We need the trees for so many things... we shouldn't set them up for premature failure and a life of suffering.

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