Summer Rebirth Many Of The Trees Damaged In Last Winter’s Ice Storm Have Made A Miraculous Recovery, But Others Are Dying And Beyond Repair

FOR THE RECORD (August 26, 1997): Figure incorrect: Spokane’s street trees are worth $108 million, according to Jim Flott, the city’s horticulture supervisor. The figure was quoted incorrectly in a Sunday IN Life feature about the recovery from last November’s ice storm.

“Snow heavy at times, mixed with rain or sleet (in) afternoon,” read the fateful Spokesman-Review weather forecast on a Tuesday morning nine months ago. “High near 36. Low near 27.”

Who could have guessed that Nov. 16 would mark the beginning of an emotional roller coaster ride that continues for those among us who appreciate our urban forest?

When the rain first started freezing on branches, the effect was almost magical. Delicate, leafless deciduous trees suddenly resembled crystal chandeliers. Some residents ran for their cameras, eager to capture the moment.

But the drizzle continued, the weight on branches grew, and the carnage began. Limbs snapped. Canopies collapsed. Ancient trunks buckled and roots erupted from the soil.

Weeks of power outages and months of cleanup eventually gave way to new spring growth and signs of encouragement along the Inland Northwest’s tree-lined streets. As the city’s signature Norway maples spread their usual full-leafed canopies over Spokane streets this summer, the ice storm’s damage suddenly seemed to disappear.

But those leaf canopies, as wide and inviting as Victorian-era front porches, are an illusion, say regional tree experts.

“People are becoming overoptimistic because leaves are hiding some serious trauma,” says commercial arborist Rich Baker. “Previously healthy trees with good reserves of energy are filling in with new growth, making us think they’re coming back. But in many cases, what we’re seeing is a tree’s last gasp.”

Once leaves fall this autumn, the trees’ slashed limbs, dead branches and gaping wounds will once again be visible, says Jim Flott, Spokane’s horticulture supervisor.

Of the city’s 70,000 street and park trees, approximately 3,000 were lost during the November ice storm. Of those remaining, 3,000 should be cut down, and another 25,000 to 30,000 damaged street trees need pruning.

“We’re still dealing with the ice storm and will be for 1-1/2 years - at least,” Flott says.

In Rochester, N.Y., a similar ice storm hit that city on March 3, 1991. Residents struggled without power for two weeks, and, according to Rochester city forester Andrew Pleninger, debris was so heavy that people could not drive down any city streets. Approximately 18 percent of the city’s 60,000 street trees and 12,000 parks trees were lost.

It took four years for the city to cut down and replant 14,000 trees, says Pleninger.

The $4.9 million cost was covered by federal disaster assistance funds. The city never could have paid for that much pruning and tree planting on its own.

After the Inland Northwest ice storm, the city of Spokane asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for $5.7 million, including money for cleaning up, pruning and replacing local trees. FEMA refused to pay for planting new trees, and gave the city only $1.8 million for pruning and tree removal.

“They just happened to change the rules with our event,” Flott says. “Just our luck.”

This summer the Spokane Parks and Recreation Department launched a fund-raising campaign called Reforest Spokane. Its first major donor, SAFECO Insurance, gave $20,000 to plant new trees in Audubon, Cannon, Hays and Liberty Parks this fall.

The cost of buying and planting a new 10- to 16-foot tree is $300, but Flott hopes to raise donations of all sizes.

In Coeur d’Alene, city forester Karen Hinson estimates that 100 street and parks trees and another 1,200 trees on Tubbs Hill were lost as a result of the storm.

The Tubbs Hill trees were cut down and sold for timber. The city made $15,727 on the sale, which will be used for repairing bridges and replacing lighting on Tubbs Hill.

Hinson hopes to apply for a state urban forestry grant to pay for planting new trees in Coeur d’Alene.

In forests filled with pine trees, the damage is more noticeable in the summertime, says Tonie Fitzgerald, a Spokane County extension agent. Wounded trees in these areas are particularly susceptible to infestations of bark beetles.

Surveying damage and deciding which trees to cut down has kept Inland Northwest tree experts busy for the past nine months.

Rich Baker was one of several arborists hired by Spokane after last fall’s ice storm to assess damage to the city’s street trees.

Some trees’ architecture had been so compromised that, even though the injury wasn’t fatal, the tree wasn’t worth saving. “After all,” Baker says, “part of the reason we plant trees is for their charm.”

Other trees seemed reasonably intact, but the loss of a major lateral branch made them susceptible to future problems, and not worth the risk of leaving them standing.

What particularly interested Baker was the way almost identical trees planted virtually side by side reacted so differently to the ice storm, depending on how they had been pruned over the years. Many properly cared for trees came through unscathed, while their soil mates suffered varying degrees of injury.

Losing limbs is a natural part of most trees’ later life, Baker says. When a tree no longer has the energy to support certain branches, it reallocates resources.

Outside forces, from high wind to pruning saws, also take their toll.

“The trauma caused by ice loading was, and remains, very energy-expensive,” says Baker. “The wounds inflicted by the storm were similar to wounds caused by poor pruning.”

When a tree loses a limb, says Baker, it doesn’t heal - it seals, forming an impenetrable barrier against insects and fungi. Healthy trees have enough energy reserves to seal a wound and get on with their lives; already-stressed older or unhealthy trees may not.

“Trees can outwit us, and they often do,” says Baker. “Ones that look like their canopy might fail any minute might stick around for 10 years.”

Conversely, the city may decide to remove a street tree that seems healthy to the casual observer, but in fact has been critically damaged and poses a public risk.

What frustrates Baker and other certified arborists are the untrained tree-removal professionals who have preyed on the unwarranted fears of homeowners. Many of the trees removed during the past nine months - particularly the immature ones - could have been saved and their canopies coaxed back to health.

“In most cases, they didn’t need to come down,” says Flott, Spokane’s urban forester.

“Right at ice storm, there was a real knee-jerk kind of reaction,” says Fred Ogram, landscape architect for Ramm Associates. He says everyone from homeowners to Washington Water Power Co., city and county governments and the city parks department over-reacted, felling trees that might have been saved.

“A fully mature tree that is 50 years old and fully branched and leafed out is worth far more than 10 of those little whips that get planted instead,” Ogram says.

The city keeps an inventory of its trees, under a computer program called “Canopy,” listing each tree, its relative health and value. A aging Norway maple on Spokane’s South Hill, for example, might be worth $5,000.

The Spokane City Council is considering a street tree ordinance proposal which would make the city, rather than residents, responsible for managing and maintaining the city’s trees.

Many residents don’t realize that the shade trees which flourish along their parking strips belong, not to them, but to the city. The new ordinance would make that clearer.

The ordinance would require that only certified arborists perform major pruning, removal or planting, and levy fines on those who injure or, after the next ice storm, chop down healthy trees. It’s designed to protect one of Spokane’s major assets.

“Street trees in Spokane are worth over $8 million,” Flott says. “That’s substantially lower than it should be because of the condition, the age and the poor quality species.”

Ultimately, tree experts agree, the Inland Northwest’s urban forests must be gradually replaced with younger, more diverse species of trees. After such a harrowing storm, and the damage to the region’s aging trees, the time seems right.

“There’s knowledge and there’s enthusiasm for doing it,” says Fitzgerald.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 10 Color photos

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: TREE TIPS For those who have yet to deal with their damaged trees, here’s what arborist Rich Baker recommends: Don’t prune injured trees until next year or later. This year’s leaves will produce the energy these trees need to recover from the trauma of split trunks and broken limbs. The foliage also protects previously unexposed canopy interiors that may be subject to sun damage - particularly smooth-barked trees such as mountain ash and Norway maples. Remove broken branches back to what is called the branch collar - the swollen or bulging tissue at the base of the branch. But take care: cutting into the collar may spread decay into the parent limb or trunk; cutting beyond the collar makes sealing the wound more difficult. Do not paint or otherwise seal wounds. Foreign substances do not aid wound closure. To prevent the spread of disease, sterilize pruning tools with a 70 percent solution of rubbing alcohol when moving from tree to tree.