Land-Use Planting Urban Foresters Propose Ordinance To Boost Protection Of Native Trees

Drivers on Indian Trail Road are looking forward to the widening of their main arterial, an often-crowded link between home and everywhere else.

At the same time, many commuters who sigh with relief at the sight of their tree-lined streets are saddened that dozens of Ponderosa pines will be lost to the construction.

Spokane doesn’t have a policy specifically preserving native trees.

However, the city’s urban foresters last week proposed an ordinance encouraging better management and funding for street trees.

Indian Trail Road could be the first street to benefit from the new emphasis.

The city plans to plant 89 trees along the widened route. Native shrubs and ground covers will also be planted.

“I think it will really complement the Indian Trail landscape, it will also be a demonstration project to show what can be done,” said city planner Tom Reese.

The City Council also recently approved a code amendment requiring that landscape plans for large projects be prepared by a registered landscape architect.

Mike Terrell, a landscape architect with Ramm Associates, urged the council to adopt the more stringent ordinance.

“The landscapes of our city include many functions,” he said in a letter to the council. “Aesthetic, recreational, and a function that has become standard - pollution control.”

Landscape can also impact a city’s economic health, Terrell said recently.

More businesses are looking not only to the economic health of an area, but at its landscape and architecture.

“We have landscape standards on the books now, but they are minimal at best,” said Terrell.

“They are much less than in other communities. If you ask for the minimum, that’s what you get.”

Lori Pfursich on the North Side agrees.

She and her neighbors were frustrated recently when efforts to save trees on the new Fred Meyer site near Highway 395 and Hastings Road failed.

“There have to be alternatives to this scrape-and-build mentality,” said Pfursich.

She said landscaping plans provided to her group by Fred Meyer are the bare minimum required by the city.

Some engineers and developers say grading, storm water drainage, and overly sensitive Ponderosa pines make it difficult to preserve native plants on building sites.

It’s quicker, easier and cheaper to clear the land for new development, they said.

Conservationists and environmentalists call it “landscraping.”

But with some forethought, trees can be saved.

Whitworth College on the North Side recently added a 125-space parking lot as part of an expansion project.

Leaving as many native trees as possible was a priority.

“Trees are the hallmark of this campus,” said Tom Johnson, the college’s vice president of finance. “We were very careful to work around the trees.

“We do have occasional problems with paving and curbing. Pines are not clean trees, there is a level of maintenance involved, but the trees are important to our campus environment,” he said.

Landscape architects say saving trees just takes some thought.

“From my standpoint you can take measures and precautions to preserve any tree during development,” said Reese.

“Other places have real strong ordinances protecting trees,” he said.

Most California cities have stringent requirements preserving the state’s historic oak trees.

“In some cities, removal of a single oak tree requires the planting of four other trees,” Reese said.

But even after native trees and shrubs have been removed, they can be replaced by other native plants through careful, thoughtful landscaping, say experts.

Volunteer groups developing the city and county comprehensive plans have proposed stronger landscape requirements.

At the last meeting of the county’s urban land use workgroup, Pfursich proposed a policy requiring preservation of existing trees, water courses, historical and cultural assets in rural and residential development.

Terrell said landscape architects should be at the table from the beginning with site engineers and building architects.

“It takes quite a bit of ingenuity to preserve native landscape instead of just laying out the standard parking lot,” said Terrell.

“You can design around Ponderosa pines, but they don’t like construction. If you apply water to them, they aren’t used to it, and might not do well.”

He pointed to the HomeBase site on East Sprague as an example of thoughtful landscaping. Drainage swales are more than grassy depressions; native trees have been integrated into the site.

“Neighborhoods need to make sure the person reviewing the landscape plan knows their concerns. Sometimes they have to be pretty aggressive,” said Terrell.

One of the biggest issues is determining which native trees are worthy of taking exceptional steps to preserve.

“Obviously, the Ponderosa pine is the most prolific. It has done so well, most people consider it a weed,” said Reese.

“But if the Ponderosa pine is our tree, then so be it,” he said.

“People are beginning to realize, especially with talk of new urbanism, the importance of good landscape architecture. “We have a wonderful native plant palette that gets by well with a minimal amount of rain.”

Jim Armstrong, spokesman for the Spokane County Conservation District said current city and county codes encourage “landscraping” because that’s the easiest way to comply with drainage and minimum parking lot size requirements.

“A lot of this is outmoded, outdated. Hopefully a lot of this will change when the comprehensive plan is rewritten,” said Armstrong.

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