Free Webinar on April 30th, 2026, 12:00-1:30 PM (EDT) Among some of the common questions regarding urban trees: Why can’t we save all the rain during the winter months for the trees during the summer droughts? Why most trees do not have deep roots? Why compacted soils are bad for your landscape? Why do trees…

Municipalities impose water restrictions during droughts and when water is in shortage. The most commonly restricted areas is landscape irrigation. While lawns can be restored within weeks, it take decades for trees to grow to their mature size, when the benefits of trees are at the maximum. Water restrictions disrupt the growth of the trees…

Community forests are vital to our communities’ ecosystems by offering many benefits including providing shade and cooling temperatures, reducing stormwater runoff and flooding, removing pollutants from the air and water, enhancing residents’ overall health, and improving the quality of life in our communities. These benefits, however, can only be realized with healthy mature trees, which take decades…

Among the common factors affecting the survival of newly planted trees, under-watering and over-watering are the top two. Providing water to newly planted trees for the first 2-5 years is critical for their survival and growth to receive the benefits and return on investment. We all have seen and probably participated in one of the…

Sodium Chloride, the most predominant salt used on streets for melting snow and ice, is the lubricant of the modern lifestyle in northern climates during wintry weather conditions. These same streets and parking lots are also the battleground where urban foresters strive to build green infrastructure for canopy coverage, stormwater management and aesthetics. It is…

Urban trees are vital to our urban ecosystems. Green industry professionals understand the benefits large mature trees provide and their effects on health and quality of life of residents. However, urban trees face various challenges, including soil degradation, pollution (including deicing salts and pesticides), invasive pests, compaction, extreme weather conditions and many other stress factors. …

The most common cause of death of newly planted urban trees is under- or over-watering. To battle this problem, there are many guidelines written to prescribe how much water for newly planted. However, none of these prescriptions addresses the watering application efficiency: How much water evaporates, runs off, lost via drainage in porous soils, and…

Green Stormwater Infrastructures (GSIs) are typically built for multi-purposes: stormwater treatment and green space. Established vegetation is used to achieve the designed functions. However, plants often fail before established. When plants die, GSIs become a not-so-good sand filter. The main reason is that plants undergo constant stresses: either too wet or too dry. By design,…

The COVID 19 pandemic exposed the limited and unbalanced access to green infrastructures (GIs). There are many publications about the benefits of GIs. Interestingly, most of the audiences/readers are the believers. It is more of “preaching to the choir”! At the same time, a significant percentage of population does not (or does not want to)…