Sidewalks and Trees: How to Coexist Better
Most communities have street trees and sidewalks. Either past, present or future designs have created conflicts between tree roots, trunk flares and sidewalks, curbs and gutter, and driveway approaches, walkways, and more competing infrastructure.
The first essential step is to consider the trees infrastructure either as valuable or more valuable than the other infrastructure on the site/in the community. The next steps are to create a program that produces new designs to avoid duplicating past mistakes, and methods to address the necessary situations to existing problems.
Trees are dynamic infrastructure competing with static infrastructure. Most situations the designs are static and don’t consider the mature size of the tree at construction. The presentation will discuss several planning tools and ideas to create the necessary space for trees and utilize the space under the trees effectively. It will also cover many mitigation approaches to repair the damaged infrastructure without having to remove the tree.
Someone has to create solutions for these challenging situations. Attendees will receive a handout that shares the possible materials and approaches to repairing infrastructure adjacent to trees, and ideas to take forward to clients, agencies and decision makers about how to grow trees in a more sustainable manner.
Learning Objectives:
- Learn the importance community trees and why they should be considered as INFRASTRUCTURE as opposed to decorative, non-essential things.
- Learn the challenges and cause of conflicts between trees and sidewalks
- Discuss the alternative methods that can improve the living conditions of trees while reduce maintenance costs of sidewalks.
1 ISA CEU (pending) and 1 LACES PDH
November 20, 2026 12:00-1:30 PM ET
https://cvent.me/dLeZoo