Townsend’s Community Forest Part 10
 | Author:
Patrick Plantenberg, Tree Board Chair
Townsend Tree Board Chair, Townsend Rotary Club |
Townsend’s Community Forest Part 10
Patrick Plantenberg
Tree Board Chair
Note: This is the tenth in a series of articles from the Townsend Tree Board reporting on the status of the community forest in Townsend.
Last week, we discussed how Townsend’s public tree size and age classes have changed over 33 years.
The 2020 inventory revealed that 594 of the 1093 total trees or 54% had been planted in Townsend since 2005. Many large undesirable trees have been removed. The average diameter at breast height (4.5 feet above the ground) of Townsend’s trees has dropped from 13 inches in 1990 to 8 inches in 2020. The percentage of Townsend’s trees over 24 inches in diameter decreased from 13 percent in 2005 to 6 percent in 2020. Currently, Townsend is concentrating on planting medium to large tree species such as linden, various Dutch elm disease-resistant elm cultivars, some alkaline soil tolerant maples, hackberry, honeylocust, and bur oak to help recover some of the lost canopy covers over time.
This week, we will discuss Townsend’s public tree maintenance over time.
Townsend’s Public Tree Maintenance over Time
In 1990, tree maintenance on street trees was judged to be fair to the poor. Most pruning was reactive in response to storms or other damage. Pruning in Townsend now is mainly proactive. Townsend has improved its maintenance practices in the last 18 years by using its Tree Board volunteers.
The Townsend Tree Board sponsored a large tree pruning workshop in 2006 to show how to properly prune trees using climbers or aerial lift trucks. Townsend also trained its citizens that are in the tree pruning business in proper tree pruning techniques in 2010 with another workshop. Patrick Plantenberg, Tree Board Chair, has attended many pruning workshops and now teaches pruning workshops in other cities in Montana.
The Tree Board rents a 50-foot man-lift each winter to prune large trees. All large trees in Townsend have been pruned at least once since 2005 to remove deadwood, thin the crown, and reduce lever arms to minimize the risk of failures. Townsends’ Tree Board volunteers prune up to 200 trees each year of its over 1,000 trees to meet city ordinance specifications and raise tree branches eight feet off sidewalks and 14 feet over city streets. The Tree Board also prunes the young trees to improve their structure during the first 5 years of their life.
Older trees have been severely pruned or topped because of improper placement around power lines and buildings. The Tree Board works with the utility company to remove these trees and has been planting smaller trees to minimize these problems.
Tree inventories have identified trees that have been lifting sidewalks. The Tree Board has worked with the city and homeowners to remove many of these trees to eliminate the risk of tripping.
As a result, Townsend’s trees today are now largely in good condition (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Condition of Townsend’s Public Trees over Time
Next week, we will discuss Townsend’s tree and stump removal process since 1990.
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