Please take a moment and study the photo below. It shows a brand new playground and, if you live in the Lower Mainland, you might recognize the area.
In the middle is a nice tree, probably a Red Maple (Acer rubrum). What’s the problem here?
Soil compaction
I appreciate the designers for keeping this tree; and let’s assume the drip line area wasn’t affected during construction. Soil compaction is a silent killer. Even if the design allowed for a decent-sized tree well, the thousands of little feet running over the root zone would eventually kill the tree.
Why? Because roots have trouble penetrating hard, compacted soils. And those same compacted soils will not absorb rain water. Most likely the water will simply runoff without percolating down to the root zone where it’s needed.
Soil compaction is a huge problem. Once I visited a very old winter-flowering cherry tree in Japan. Yes, winter-flowering. And there was a huge barrier around the tree to keep tourists from killing it.
In BC, construction projects must protect trees with orange fencing.
Still, a tree well would give this tree a chance. As it is, I don’t like its chances of long-term survival.
It’s also very likely that the bark, and possibly lower branches, will get damaged by kids using the playground. This is assuming their helicopter parents even allow them to climb the tree or produce a knife to carve their initials into it.
Another problem with the playground surface is that it will kill the soil underneath. And that will make it even more difficult for the roots to obtain adequate resources.
I hope I’m wrong but if the tree dies, there will be removal costs to cover. Considering all of the notes above, this tree should have been removed from the design.
This idea comes from Dr. Julian Dunster. At last year’s CanWest horticulture trade show he mentioned that the idea of keeping every tree on construction sites is wrong. Why is it wrong? Well, because construction affects many of the trees badly. So much so that their long-term survival is extremely low. It’s best to remove the trees and start over with new specimens.
I will go check on this tree when I’m in the area.
