Presentation Critical of the "Right Size" Concept of Urban Forestry?
June 29, 2015 10:10 PM   Subscribe

A few years ago I came across a presentation on the web. It was from an urban forester who was critical of the "right size" movement in urban forestry--you know, the one that advocates planting spindly overgrown shrubs along streets rather than the magnificent towering canopy trees of yesteryear, on the grounds that big trees can crack the sidewalks and stuff. Now I can't find it. Anyone have a link to critiques of the right size movement?

I don't need the exact presentation I remember, anything in that vein will do. What I recall about the presentation I saw was that is was heavily illustrated (I think it was a Powerpoint or something similar). One of the points was that even trees that grow up into powerlines and require drop crotch pruning still provide better benefits than smaller trees.
posted by LarryC to Society & Culture (2 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Don't have an answer, sorry, but any answers you get would be very interesting to me too (as I'm running an urban tree planting campaign and have some of the same concerns).
posted by ecourbanist at 3:51 PM on July 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: I never did find the presentation again--and my Google-fu is very strong. I am really surprised.

This blog seems to be coming from a similar place and has good information.

The basic arguments that I am looking or are 1. Right-sized (small) trees are nearly always a terrible compromise--partly because you end up with large bushes rather than trees, blocking people from getting in and out of their cars because they start to branch off a few feet from the ground, 2. Large trees provide enormously greater benefits in terms of shade, rainwater retention, property values and urban wildlife, and 3. Fuck sidewalks anyway. That is how I remember it.
posted by LarryC at 4:08 PM on March 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


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