Plant Red Maples, not Swamp Oaks

 

Honorable Mayor, Council and Manager,

            At the December 14th workshop, you discussed what kind of trees should be planted on the Washington Boulevard median after the declining flowering cherries are taken out.  The city’s Tree Advisory Committee was split on the matter; some wanted to continue the row of red maples, but more members wanted diversity, so the group recommended white swamp oak. 

A couple of councilors who live on that street objected to the committee’s choice of oaks.  Oaks drop acorns; squirrels love them; squirrels are destructive; and they already have a squirrel problem. 

Diversity is overrated in city street trees.  Continuing that nice line of red maple would lend consistency to the median and make a beautiful show in the fall, even if they will be smaller than the current trees for some time to come.  Red maples grow faster than oaks, particularly when young, and should catch up to the other red maples as the older trees mature.

I love red maple leaves: I raked up a truck load last fall from around one large, lone tree in that median for mulch.  Red maple leaves resist rot as well as oak, keeping soil covered through the summer.  The leaves I gathered were still in perfect condition, not sticking together as I spread them in my garden yesterday, although they were wet in the bags for two months.  Their leaves don’t blow around like oak leaves do, being flat.

Oaks should not be planted near pavements.  Round acorns are a hazard to cyclists, turn ankles and make a mess in the road when run over.  Crows drop acorns and walnuts on pavements just to get them run over so they can eat nut meat. 

Swamp oaks drop their leaves in the spring, and their dead leaves hang on all winter.  City crews would have to clean up leaves along that median in fall and spring.  Indeed, oaks are some of the dirtiest trees we have, dropping not only leaves and nuts, but flowers, many twigs, and lichen.

Maples have smaller seeds that don’t store well for squirrels and don’t roll underfoot.  They are surface rooters that will not likely get into the pipes they are planted near and don’t bother grass growing beneath them.  

Before we planted the present red maples, we had all flowering cherries on that median.  It would have been better to replace all of them at the same time, but it will be good to continue with what already works.

Photo courtesy of Wordpress.com

Speech to the Grants Pass City Council, 1-20-2021

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Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener        541-955-9040             rycke@gardener.com