Now taking root: 9,000-plus new trees on Minneapolis streets and parkland

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Forestry

9,000-plus trees added to city streets, parkland this season

forestry crew planting trees with young onlookers

Forestry crews are finishing up planting a wide array of tree categories, helping to build a healthy, resilient urban forest. 

 

By now, you've probably seen a number of young trees along city streets or in parks, with tell-tale watering bags wrapped around their lanky trunks.

 

With May as peak tree-planting season at the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB), today nearly all of 2019's new trees are putting down roots throughout the city. The newcomers hail from 27 tree categories, and were planted in numbers that range from 1,200-plus catalpa to just 55 acer (maple): about 9,100 in total. 

 

This year's planting enjoyed two favorable factors: A relatively early start, before MPRB's annual Arbor Day festival in late April; and plenty of the cool, rainy weather that is optimal for planting trees.

 

2019 also marks the sixth year of MPRB's eight-year canopy replacement plan. This plan is not only our response to the emerald ash borer (EAB) infestation that is killing ash trees in Minneapolis; it's also part of our overall mission is to ensure tree variety.

 

MPRB forestry practices that advance this mission include:

  • Plant hundreds of tree types from dozens of categories
  • Mix three to five or more tree categories on any individual city block
  • Limit any tree category within a neighborhood to 10% 

In practice, that 10% limit means that every year, we're planting tree categories currently present on streets and parkland only in small numbers. Over time, this lowers the percentages for categories that currently dominate, such as maples, lindens and yes, even elms (as shown in the chart below).

 

Tree diversity protects against the kind of blight brought by diseases like Dutch elm or insects like emerald ash borer, which attack single types of trees, and allows the urban forest to continue improving air quality and lessening the impact of urban heat islands. 

 

Three cheers for the 9,000 new trees that are adding to those efforts!


Street & Parkland Tree Genera Diversity 2019

2019 chart showing the range of tree categories growing on Minneapolis streets and parkland


What got planted this year? Stayed tuned for an update.

Watch for highlights on some of the tree categories noted above.

 

In the meantime: