To get the ball rolling, the MAA is inviting anyone to identify potential tree care projects in their own communities, and then to post those project ideas on the Arbor Day link at www.MassArbor.org.  They hope to get ideas from all 351 Massachusetts cities and towns by January 15.  From that list, MAA members and member companies will choose projects for their own Arbor Day of Service volunteer effort.

This is a great way for professional arborists to make a contribution to the civic good, and for cities and towns to reap the benefits of a concerted professional effort.  Safety pruning, tree planting, hazard tree removal, ornamental pruning — a community you drive through daily may have the project that’s perfect for your company to tackle on Arbor Day.  To submit a project for Arbor Day of Service consideration by the MAA arborists, visit www.MassArbor.org by January 15, and click on Arbor Day.

Help younger generations grow up with the Arbor Day of Service.

The crew uses a heavy canvas strap wrapped securely (more than once) around the trunk, and pads the Bobcat fork bracket. This tree's flat back meant it could be pulled securely up onto the forks without tying up branches; other trees would need to be tied up for easier spading and transport. Here, the forks are poised to push under the root ball, just below the wire basket.

Rolando prunes thin fibrous roots from under the basket, to release the root ball from the ground. Most of the root mass has already been blown out.

Spruce on the move. With almost all the soil blown off the root mass, it is light enough for the Bobcat to carry the tree easily across campus. Canvas straps secure the tree to the Bobcat; Rolando rides along just in case.

Closeup of the root mass. Virtually all of the roots on this tree were quite thin, and they made a dense mat that extended about nine feet out from the tree's trunk on several sides.

Mynor had dug out the hole with the Bobcat while Sonia and Rolando blew out the soil from around the tree. This site, next to a busy campus parking lot, challenged the crew to place the tree carefully. Cars were parked just to the right of the orange barrier in this photo, and other relocated trees ringed the dish on two other sides, so maneuvering to get the tree in place was a bit tricky. It's relatively easy to spin at least a small B&B tree to the right orientation; turning an air-spaded tree requires a bit more forethought. In this situation, a bit of three-dimensional visualization was necessary to be sure that the flat side faced away from the parking lot.

Sonia and Rolando used a rake handle and tape measure to determine the root mass's depth before adjusting soil depth in the new hole.

Additional native soil is added and compacted to make a pad under the trunk. When in doubt, it's better to place the tree slightly higher in its new location than to risk it settling deeper once it has been backfilled and watered in; tamping the soil firmly under and around the roots right at the tree's base helps insure both that the soil won't subside and that air pockets are eliminated.

Rolando guides Mynor in setting the tree in the right spot. Good communication is key through this entire project, and these guys were excellent in coordinating their work with each other.

Rolando and Santo shovel native soil under the rolled-up root mat, to secure and level the tree before its roots get spread out.

Sonia and Rolando spread soil under and over the roots as they unroll them from the bundle. Note that they are using soil excavated from the site, with no amendments. Bare-root transplanting eliminates the difficulties associated with moisture transfer between two types of soil (root ball soil and soil outside the root ball), which makes establishment in its new site less stressful for the tree.

With backfilling complete, the crew builds a berm.

With the berm in place, Sonia waters the backfill thoroughly. Some crews shovel in the backfill and water simultaneously, "mudding in" the tree for extra stability and the complete elimination of air pockets. Mulch will go on this new planting next, and then more water. Note that you can see the root flare, now that the tree has been excavated from its original root ball and planted at the proper depth.

Project site:  The Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, MA

Project manager:  Sonia Baerhuk

Project crew:  Rolando Ortega, Mynor Tobar, Santo Masciari

A couple of weeks ago I was chatting with Kristen DeSouza, one of the horticulturists at the New England Wild Flower Society‘s Garden In The Woods, and she mentioned that she had passed my name along to Sonia Baerhuk, who tends the grounds at Watertown’s Perkins School for the Blind.  Kristen told me that Sonia and her crew have been using air tools to  transplant trees on the school’s grounds for the last several months, and suggested that I get in touch with her.

And so last Thursday, a couple of emails and a phone call later, I pulled in to the visitor’s parking area at the Perkins School.  Sonia soon arrived in one of the grounds department’s Gators.  She very kindly showed me around the campus, explaining that a new and large building project had required the removal of dozens of large trees.

It’s a scenario typical of many institutional sites:  a program outgrows its home, the phasing of a master plan leads to a shifting of facilities or the construction of a new building, and the vegetation on site must either be removed or relocated.  Having worked at Perkins for several years, Sonia was no stranger to this course, of events, but still, she had been dismayed to see so many large specimen trees being cut and fed into the chipper.

Though the grounds crew does most of its own tree work, over the years they have called in arborists for their expertise, and Sonia knew and trusted Matt Foti’s expertise.  Matt had told her about the air-tool method, and on the strength of his recommendation, she signed up for the MAA’s Elm Bank bare-root workshop this past August.  At it, she absorbed as much information as possible.  She came away from the day’s event convinced that air-tool excavation and transplant was the best way for her crew to relocate any salvageable campus trees.

So Sonia and her boss Rich Falzone equipped the crew with an Air Spade and an Air Knife, coveralls, eye protection, ear protection, and respirators, and began to direct the relocation of trees.

To date, the Perkins crew — Sonia Baerhuk, Rolando Ortega, Mynor Tobar, and Santo Masciari — has moved several 15-20′ Norway spruce, a fastigiate white pine, a Forest Pansy redbud, several apples, and a beautifully structured 25-30′ tall Halesia.

On the day I visited, they were ready to move another Norway spruce from a location that is slated to become a pondside patio.  Its new home would be a lawn next to a parking lot to which they had already moved a number of evergreens.  The new planting is beginning to screen the lot from adjacent buildings; over time, this grove will shade the parking lot and the walkway near it.

Sonia Baerhuk marking the new home of a 15' Norway spruce to be relocated.

Fifteen-foot Norway spruce in its original location next to the campus pond. The crew discovered that the Norway's roots were interwoven with roots from other nearby trees. This tree was flat on the side facing the fence.

Currently, the grounds crew rents compressors. These two generated air for an Air Knife and an Air Spade. Note the plywood barriers set up to prevent soil overspray onto the lawn. In this project, the crew did not dig a trench to hold blown-out soil; they simply started blowing soil out from the trunk and followed the roots out to and beyond the dripline.

Sonia and Rolando, kitted out in their PSE: coveralls, gloves, hats and hoods, ear protection, eye protection, and respirators.

Blowing soil off the roots took about three hours. Sonia likes to divide the root mass diameter into quadrants and work systematically, while Rolando prefers to work all around the tree; when they work in tandem they use whichever method fits the site conditions best.

Edges of the original B&B root ball are barely visible here; it was roughly 24-30" across. Rolando and Sonia discovered the wire basket still around it. They also discovered that the root flare sat several inches down in the original root ball.

The spruce was anchored with a thick mat of fibrous roots; the crew found virtually no roots larger than 1/2" in diameter. Here, they are pruning root ends under the eighteen-inch deep mat.

Still pruning the mat, and rolling it up toward the trunk to blow soil out from under the tree.

The root mat rolled up and bound in burlap for further blowing-out and moving.

Project site:  The Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, MA

Project manager:  Sonia Baerhuk

Project crew:  Rolando Ortega, Mynor Tobar, Santo Masciari

Mike Furgal

Mike Furgal, the original developer of the air-tool bare-root transplant method, has patiently reviewed my articles and given thoughtful and well-considered answers to all my questions.  He has a tremendous amount of knowledge about trees and transplanting, and he is extremely generous in sharing it.

Matt Foti

Matt Foti, who hosted the first MAA workshop on air-tool bare-root transplanting (given by Mike and Matt) at his nursery at Nonset Farm, has taken the time to discuss a wide range of tree-related issues with me, and to provide clarifications to help make this information as up-to-the-minute and accurate as possible.  He has been the catalyst to get word of bare-root work out to the MAA and beyond, and has put energy and dedication into practicing, experimenting, and teaching.  Another generous guy.

Carl Cathcart

Carl Cathcart, Consulting Arborist, has provided encouragement and still more information to me from the day we met at the Nonset Farm workshop.  He alerted me to the Cavicchio’s root-washing experiment, he talks up my writing to other arborists, and his encouragement is what got me writing about this stuff in the first place.

In July, Matt and Mike transplanted a number of very large trees for a project in Wellesley, MA.  They (and the homeowner, contractor, and landscape architect) kindly allowed me and a colleague to videotape the moving of two forty-foot high London Plane trees.  Editing of over six hours of videotape is underway now, and I’m hopeful that I’ll have a decent film this fall that Matt and Mike can do some voiceover comments on (not possible on site — air-tools are incredibly loud!).    When we’re done, it should give a fairly comprehensive look at how this method works for transplanting significant trees.  (And I bet Carl’s going to talk it up…)

For all these reasons, I offer my sincerest thanks to Mike, Matt, and Carl.  They are models of generosity, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

Probably the biggest draw of the Elm Bank workshop on September 10, 2009, was Mike Furgal’s moving of a 6″ caliper elm hybrid.  Mike first developed the method of air-tool bare-root transplanting in 2004, and has been working on it since, moving ornamental specimens and canopy trees with great success.  The biggest tree he has moved was a 21″ caliper, 50′ high mulberry (it was the owner’s choice), in November 2008; this past July he worked on Matt Foti’s project of moving several large trees, including the five 40′ high London plane trees showcased in posts on www.takingplace.net.

(To find those posts, click on the link in the last sentence, and then click on the ‘Plants’ link in Categories listed on the right side of the page.  All posts related to air-tool transplanting will pop up; the links for the London plane project are dated July 29, July 31, August 3, and August 7.  Browse among earlier ‘Plants’ posts for more articles on bare-root transplanting.)

So Mike has lots of experience with this work, and continues to think about the best ways — for the trees and for the crews — to move trees.  He made a number of observations in his Elm Bank talk about air-tool transplanting:

1.  The larger the tree, the more cost-effective the bare-root move is.

2.  Bare-root transplanting lets roots settle immediately into the soil on the new site.  With no root ball/surrounding soil interface to impede moisture saturation or interrupt moisture flow, the roots are able to adapt right away and start growing.  As a result, watering and aftercare are also easier and more effective.

3.  The greater the depth of good quality soil, the more apt roots are to grow down as well as out.

4.  Arborists and landscape architects MUST stress the need for sustained aftercare once a tree has been bare-root transplanted.  One year of attentive watering is good, but two, three, four, or even five years is better.

5.  Mike asked “Do we arborists plant trees or do we install them?”  When you install a B&B tree, he suggested, you dig a hole, put the tree in the ground, backfill, and water.  When you plant a tree, you remove the wire basket, remove the burlap and twine, possibly break up the soil mass, spread the roots out to promote outward growth, and water sufficiently for the next couple of years for the tree to root into its home.  ’Installing’ a tree makes the tree simply a product, a commodity that can (and may have to be) replaced.  ’Planting’ a tree recognizes and attends to the needs of this living organism, and promotes its good health and sustained long life.

6.  Air tools dry out root surfaces — pre-watering of the root mass and soil around a tree to be moved helps the tree hydrate and maintain turgor pressure during the transplant operation.  Mike suggested that trees may have a greater tolerance for short-term root drying than is commonly assumed, and urged the audience to observe what happens to the roots of trees they may move bare-root, and how those trees react to the process.

7.  When you use an air tool to excavate a tree for transplanting, dig your soil trench in sections, and dig it deep enough (measured in feet, not inches) to hold quite a bit of blown out soil, thus minimizing the number of times it needs to be emptied.  Mike pointed out that it’s necessary to consider how best to move the excess soil around; it’s important to plan the job at the outset, including how to access the plant(s) to be moved, how to avoid plants to remain, and where to stockpile the blown-out soil.

8.  The bare-root process can allow arborists use lighter equipment (depending on tree size, of course) than may be necessary for B&B trees.  A 2000-pound mini-excavator can pick up a six-inch elm, while to move that same tree B&B would require a large backhoe or front-end loader.

9.  The more fibrous a tree’s root system, the less likely it is to need cabling after a bare-root transplant.  A root mass’s size, the nature of its rooting, and the relationship between those factors and the tree’s size will also factor into the decision to cable a newly-planted bare-root tree.

Mike had blown soil out from around the roots of the Elm Bank elm the day before the workshop, and kept them covered until the workshop demonstrations began.

Healthy elm tree, soil blown off its roots, ready to be moved.

Closeup of the roots. This root mass measured 14 feet across at its widest. Roots have been pigtailed -- that is, tied together and lifted to keep them from breaking during the air-tool excavation and move.

Dingo used to move the tree, whose new location was about fifty feet away from where it originally stood.

Mike Furgal and his assistant planning their course of action. Note the tagline leading out from the canopy; it will be used to stabilize the tree during the move and backfill operation.

Mike directs the Dingo forks under the root plate while his assistant holds the trunk stable. Note the heavy burlap padding both on the Dingo and on the tree trunk.

Lifting the tree. Trunk padding rests on Dingo padding; tagline helps the trunk and canopy remain steady.

Beginning to move the tree requires that it sit firmly on the forks, and remain balanced through the move.

Cutting the last few anchored roots, and any roots broken in the process. Loppers work best; be sure they are sharp enough to make clean cuts (a set of root-pruning tools is useful, as cutting dirty roots with top-growth tools will ruin their blades quickly).

Moving the elm up its soil ramp and out of its plant bed; an attending arborist jumps in to help the roots past this thriving pine.

Elm tree on the move. Stabilizing the trunk and moving slowly keeps the job safe.

Big canopy. This year's growing season was moist and fairly cool, leading to lots of topgrowth and long twig extension.

Mike steers the Dingo to the crater he has dug. It is relatively shallow, to match the elm root mass depth, and wide (though not wide enough at first -- a couple of trenches had to be dug beyond the crater at the last minute to some extra-long roots).

Lowering the elm into its crater.

Whoa! A moment of excitement, when tree weight and crater's-edge slope combined to tip the Dingo on its tracks.

The Iwo Jima shot. A team of volunteers ran in to right the tree.

Holding the tree upright once the Dingo forks have been pulled out.

Again, holding the tree upright. The pigtails now get cut open and roots spread out radially from the trunk.

Freeing the roots, beginning to dig in backfill, and watering to make a soil slurry that will eliminate air pockets and help anchor the spread-out root plate.

With the tree in its new location, burlap padding the trunk may be removed.

Digging in the root mass. It's important to pack the soil directly under the tree's trunk, to eliminate air holes and ensure against settling of the tree lower in its hole over time.

Big canopy on this tree, with a root mass to match.

A bucket on the Dingo shakes backfill -- the native soil onsite in this case -- into the crater as workers wield shovels and a hose.

Trunk flare, placed in the proper relationship to finish grade. Note the cut root ends; clean cuts with sharp tools let the wounds heal quickly.

More backfill, more water, and someone still holds the tagline for safety. The Dingo never drives over the root mass, but drops soil onto it from outside the planting hole.

Still more water, as the backfilling continues.

Building the well wall, as water continues to flow.

Six-inch caliper elm tree in its new location. Some wilt is evident -- likely because the tree was excavated the day before and the roots had been exposed through the course of the several-hours long workshop. The tagline finally lies slack. Two to four inches of mulch will next be added, and kept away from the trunk.

Demonstrating arborist at this station:

Mike Furgal, Furgal’s Tree and Landscape, Northborough, MA

Air spade tree transplanting

Turf provided the only competition for this tree, but it was showing dieback and early fall color at the MAA workshop. Dave Leonard excavated at its base to take a look at its rooting habit for possible problems.

With soil blown away from the original root ball, it was clear that the tree’s planting had initiated some problems — parts of the wire basket appeared at the edges of the root ball, and cut root ends had sent out an explosion of fibrous roots that turned back toward the trunk.

Root ends cut during the tree's digging in the nursery sent out masses of fibrous roots, quite a few of which turned back toward the trunk. The interface between root ball soil and surrounding soil can inhibit root growth into the surrounding soil; removing burlap, removing the wire basket, and breaking up the root ball soil, particularly at the ball's perimeter, can help promote the spread of new roots. Note the soil line some inches up the trunk flare; removing soil above the trunk flare will also benefit the tree and lessen its stress.

Dave cut away the roots that he could not redirect outward, and trimmed off the roots that had begun to circle the trunk flare’s base, which would otherwise eventually girdle the trunk and major anchor roots.  Some of these roots were the beginnings of a secondary root system put out by the tree in response to its stress.

Removing the worst of the inward-growing and circling roots improves the tree's chances for survival.

After excavating the root ball, Dave intended to continue to blow soil out away from the root ball, creating a shallow crater  out at least to the tree’s dripline.  Removing turf from that zone would eliminate plant competition for soil moisture; the addition of 2-4″ of mulch (kept away from the trunk) would help the soil retain moisture and an even temperature, add organics to it over time, and lessen the chance of soil compaction that inhibits soil/air gas exchange.

Dave said that he would also consider lifting the tree a few inches, to bring its trunk flare into a better relationship with surrounding grade.  This tree had been in the ground for a couple of years; Dave suggested that tree lifting might be worth doing within two to four years of planting, but could be detrimental to the tree after that.  (The window of opportunity for lifting a tree would be a lot wider if an air tool were used, rather than a Bobcat or excavator, as the tree could be bare-rooted and set back in place with relatively little stress from the process.)

Demonstrating arborist at this station:

Dave Leonard, Dave Leonard Consulting Arborist, Inc., Lexington, KY

Matt first showed a couple of forest saplings he had pulled early in the day to illustrate how a naturally-seeded tree’s roots grow.  The sapling’s roots were evenly spaced around its stem, and extended out a distance relatively equivalent to the distance its topgrowth extended from the stem.

This little forest-grown white pine has a clean, evenly spaced root system.

He then pointed to a couple of nursery-grown trees whose rooting problems had become evident after several years.

These root systems have been cut in the digging process. In an attempt to regrow roots, the foreground tree has sent out a secondary root system, several of which are beginning to girdle other roots. Kept too long in a burlapped ball or in a container, roots will often turn back in to the ball, making effective planting and long-term growth problematic.

Shrubs as well as trees are susceptible to root problems; Matt dismantled an Ilex verticillata root mass to illustrate how he treats roots bound in a container or in burlap before planting.

Fibrous roots hold together in a near solid mass right out of the container.

Using a three-pronged fork to untangle the root mass. For a bigger shrub or small tree, a machete or pitchfork may work well to loosen soil and reorient roots.

Ilex verticillata root mass, now ready for planting.

Soil can present another problem for nursery-dug B&B trees.  Clay soils make sturdy root balls, which can be useful for shipping, but not so great for root growth.

This pair of trees have root masses encased in rock-hard clay soils. Note the solid clumps of clay in the foreground, and root growth only on top of the root ball -- these roots found it impossible to grow into and through this soil. Breaking up the soil in a root ball like this before planting promotes the tree's future health; leaving this kind of root ball intact almost guarantees tree stress and decline.

Closeup of rock-hard clay root ball, broken apart (fairly violently) for demonstration purposes.

Another example of a dense clay root ball that constricted root growth to the tree's great detriment. Soil had also been piled up around this tree's trunk flare, further challenging its ability to live. Tough conditions for a tree to grow in...

The point of these illustrations was to show how necessary it is, when planting a tree or shrub, to work with the root ball before covering it with soil.  Removing wire baskets, removing burlap, loosening or removing the soil, untangling roots as best as possible, pruning roots when necessary — all these tactics make up a strategy for promoting real tree growth.  Bare-root techniques have shown that a great deal of the work that arborists do these days is remedial — that is, is work intended to remedy poor growing, digging, or planting practices.  With the knowledge arborists now have of how root issues so obviously affect plant health, it only makes sense to attend to those issues early on, to avoid greater problems later.

Demonstrating arborist at this station:

Matt Foti, Matthew R. Foti Landscape and Tree Service, Inc., Lexington, MA

Again, the arborists set up barriers to limit the area affected by blown-out soil and pebbles. Rolf Briggs (right foreground) showed how to use a compaction meter, and explained that the green flags delineate the area to be decompacted. Flagging the area for review by the client makes the limit of work clear to all parties.

Compaction limits the movement of moisture and of gases (oxygen included) in soils, and so can create significant problems for trees.  Trees rely on water being available to their roots, and on the ready intake of oxygen (from the air and from water molecules) for carbon dioxide discharged by those roots.  Compacted soils tend not to allow oxygen in in sufficient quantities, nor allow the steady release of carbon dioxide that a tree needs.  Breaking up the compaction, adding organic amendments to improve soil structure, and replacing lawn areas around trees with mulch beds are steps that benefit soil health, and as a result, tree health.

Decompacting soil around two sugar maple trees. One man operates the air tool, blowing vertical trenches and mixing their backfill with a proprietary organic soil amendment that mimics forest duff. The other operator mans the air hose, and tugs on it to signal to the operator. Air tools are loud!. Green flags indicate limits of the decompaction zone.

Tree Specialists prewaters the work area 24-48 hours before starting on a decompaction project, to hydrate the roots and help keep dust down.  As they proceed with the process, they begin to ‘fold in’ amendments.

For further information on decompaction, Briggs recommended an article in the current issue (September 2009) of Tree Care Industry Magazine on soil decompaction and amendment.

Demonstrating arborists at this station:

Tree Specialists, Inc.,  Holliston, MA

Quite a few arborists and other landscape professionals attended the workshop, which began with slide talks and then moved outside to field demonstrations.

This workshop focused on root issues, with demonstrations of what some of those issues are — conflicts with utility lines, the effects of poor growing and planting practices, decline due to compacted and poor soils, and inappropriate tree locations — and how they may be remedied.

Rolf Briggs and Tree Specialists set up shop at a couple of different stations to show how they use air tools both to decompact soils and to excavate utility trenches near trees.  The demonstrating arborists first discussed protective equipment, and showed what  they use when they employ air tools:  We watched as they put on respirators, helmets with face masks, ear protection, gloves, and either foul weather gear or jumpsuits — all necessary to protect from the great quantities of dust, soil, and stones blowing into the air.

To protect the surrounding area from flying detritus, Mike Hickman of Tree Specialists set up plywood or screen barriers around his work zone.  I’ve seen plain plywood sheets used; the Tree Specialist guys have figured out that hinging several sheets together makes for a sturdier barrier, a good thing if you’re using air tools with any regularity in anything but a wide-open landscape.

Hinged plywood panels keep the dust contained to the area around a trench.

When it's necessary to dig a trench near a tree, air tools can do the job while preserving the tree's roots. You can see roots crossing this trench, but plenty of space beneath them for a new conduit or line. This trench was blown out with an air spade, and rocks and excess loose material after the blowing-out removed by hand.

The power of compressed air will break up soil move it out of the way; it can also damage roots to some extent, by blowing root bark or feeder roots entirely away.  When using an air tool, experienced operators keep the nozzle moving to limit this kind of damage, and whenever possible (definitely not always possible in trenching work), they direct the air flow parallel to the direction of major root growth, away from the base of the tree.

Note the plywood barrier inside the trench as well, to focus the air blast and prevent soil from blowing into a previously blown-out section.

Blowing out the trench. This air tool is a new product that uses an auxiliary stream of water to help keep the roots hydrated and the dust down. Tree Specialists is assessing this new feature.

After blowing out a utility trench, Tree Specialists simply returns the native soil to the excavated area.  They may add some amendments such as lime or humates, if they have already had soil tests done that indicate the need for such amendments.  And to mulch the area once excavation and backfilling are complete, they have developed a proprietary mix of chipped and composted wood fibers (mainly from tree parts 3″ and less in diameter), twigs, and leaves.  They use this same mix in their soil decompaction process, and note benefits to the trees from its use.

Mike Hickman pointed out that air tools break down soil aggregates and so obliterate soil structure in the area blown out.  This breakdown can be considered a disadvantage of using compressed air for excavation; in Mike’s words, “Destruction of some of the soil aggregates I see as a “con,” but proper horticultural practices such as mulching and site specific amendments effectively mitigate these cons.”

Demonstrating arborist at this station:

Mike Hickman, Tree Specialists, Inc., Holliston, MA

It was a fine workshop, and I’ll be posting quite a few photos from it in the next few days.  Today, though, I’m only posting this photo:

Sugar maple whose trunk flare was excavated several years ago at a Bartlett Tree workshop given to demonstrate the new and revolutionary use of air tools in tree work.

Several years ago, I went with a friend to this Bartlett Tree workshop at Elm Bank, and we were among a smallish group who watched as an arborist blew several inches of soil away from the trunk flare of this Sugar Maple.  As I recall, the tree had been planted a bit deep, it was set in a fairly compacted lawn, and it was not looking as well as it might; at the time (this was perhaps seven or eight, or perhaps even ten years ago) it had about a six-inch caliper trunk and was not thriving.

Now, however, the tree looks really good.  It may have a little too much mulch around its base — built up since its excavation — but its foliage is deep green, its bark is intact (trunk injuries sometimes show up as a result of some kind of root trauma or injury), and it certainly has grown.  A mulch bed surrounds it and keeps lawnmowers away as it minimizes compaction.  If this kind of growth results from attending to root issues early on and from maintaining a tree properly, the arborists from this workshop may prove, down the road, to be responsible for promoting what truly may be the best arboricultural practices around.

Workshop speakers:

Dave Leonard, Dave Leonard Consulting Arborist, Inc., Lexington, KY

Rolf Briggs, Tree Specialists, Inc., Holliston, MA

Mike Furgal, Furgal’s Tree and Landscape, Northborough, MA

Matt Foti, Matthew R. Foti Landscape and Tree Service, Inc., Lexington, MA