Trees In Trouble Many City Trees Are Hazardous Or In Failing Health Because Of Neglect Over The Years, A Consulting Firm Has Discovered

Staring up at a scrawny maple tree on West Augusta, Ellen Lomega enters data into a hand-held computer. She makes notes on the tree’s roots, trunk, branches, stems and leaves.

She notices a trunk cavity and runs a stick down the inside to measure it at about 18-inches deep. Lichen has started to grow along the edge and the weak trunk could snap during a heavy wind. Lomega notes in her computer that the tree ought to be removed.

Down the street, the roots of a maple have overturned the sidewalk, causing a hazard for pedestrians. “This is a big tree for an urban environment,” she said of the 30-foot Norway maple.

The tree next to it has been scarred by a cat and one farther down was improperly pruned. “From what I’ve seen there are a lot of unhealthy trees out here,” said Lomega, an arborist with Natural Path Forestry, the Missoula firm hired by the city to inventory its 100,000 street trees.

What the firm is discovering is that a large number of trees lining the streets of north Spokane are in sorry shape. A new program by the city Parks Department is out to change that.

The citywide inventory of trees, along with the removal of hazardous trees, are the first steps in a new urban forestry program. The city will also try to educate residents on proper maintenance, establish a tree board and advocate the use of community development money to replant a more diverse and drought-tolerant stock of saplings.

The program started this year and has so far looked at trees on city rights-of-way in Logan, Emerson-Garfield, Nevada-Lidgerwood and the North Hill. Only areas south of Wellesley have been completed. Plans call for the rest of the North Side to be surveyed in 1996.

Of the 18,648 trees surveyed in north Spokane, almost 13 percent are in poor condition or dead. That’s almost four times the norm for cities, according to arborists. The number of dead trees so far stands at 1,338.

Though adjacent property owners are responsible for maintaining street trees, the city ordinance is not enforced and some just haven’t gotten the word, said Clyde Timboe, a retiree working to improve the health of trees in the Logan neighborhood.

“Street trees are kind of orphans. They say ‘that’s the right-of-way.’ People think they don’t have to water them, don’t have to care for them,” Timboe said.

Findings of the tree inventory include:

Some 144 trees on the North Side have been classified as hazardous and the city will award a bid this week to begin removal. All the trees coming down have been marked with a yellow X and adjacent property owners should be notified, said Debbie Clem-Olsen of the Parks Department.

The Logan neighborhood has the largest number of dead trees (210) while Nevada-Lidgerwood has the highest percent of trees classified as either poor, very poor or dead (23 percent).

Emerson-Garfield has the highest percentage (80) of street trees rated in excellent or good condition. The neighborhood around Corbin Park also has the highest value per tree, $3,295 and the fewest spaces for new trees.

Of the trees reported with some defects, 16 percent or 2,834 trees, were improperly pruned. Improper pruning was the single largest problem reported with street trees.

The value of trees set by landscape experts is about 20 percent below what it should be because of poor maintenance, said Mark Duntemann, president of Natural Path Forestry.

There is wide discrepancy in the condition of trees among neighborhoods. The landscape value per tree in Emerson-Garfield is set 44 percent higher than in Logan.

Eventually, every street tree in the city will be surveyed and adjacent property owners could receive information on trees near them and recommendation for better maintenance.

The biggest problems so far on the North Side is not enough water and improper pruning.

Deep watering is necessary even for mature trees. To accomplish this, a hose should run water at the base of a tree for about 10 minutes a week. That will encourage a deep root system that adds to tree strength.

When pruning, Clem-Olsen said only certified arborists should be hired.

Timboe, a member of the Logan steering committee, knows firsthand the difficulty of making residents aware of their street trees.

He’s gone door-to-door notifying homeowners about trees that need to be removed and soliciting open spaces where new plantings can flourish.

There was initial resistance to removing even dead trees as some homeowners wanted them for wildlife habitat and sound buffers. Some of the spaces with existing trees that will come down are too small for new trees, he added.

The Logan steering committee has set aside $60,000 for tree removal and replanting.

Lucy Reiner, who walked the area with Timboe, said other homeowners are relieved the city will be removing hazardous trees at no cost to them.

“With the winds we’ve been having they can really be a hazard. They’re happy they’re coming down because they can’t afford to take them down.”

Darlene Becker, chair of the Emerson-Garfield Steering Committee, said proper tree pruning and other maintenance can be costly and community development or park maintenance money ought to be made available for that.

“They’ll let us use it to plant and take out, but not maintain. This neighborhood especially, all you see is trees and we can’t maintain them.”

Even with the urban forestry program, the city will never have enough money to pay for maintenance, said Clem-Olsen

For Timboe, the message is clear. “If you don’t take care of your trees,” he said, “you’re going to have dead trees.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos (1 Color) Graphic: North Spokane’s urban canopy