Ottawa Forests & Greenspace

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Maintenance Practices Impacting City Trees

 

May 17, 2011

Mr. John Manconi,
GM Public Works,
Public Works Department,
City Operations Portfolio,
City of Ottawa.

Subject: Park Maintenance Operations and its Impact on City Trees

Mr. Manconi,

Here we go again!  Spring is here and the City Parks’ grass cutting maintenance is up and running, unfortunately so is its standard practice of using "string weed trimmers" to remove the grass around the base of city park trees.

In order to protect damage to tree trunks from either string weed trimmers or lawn tractors, OFGAC had requested, through a motion back in March 2009, that City staff make it a priority to amend its mowing practices, starting immediately in the cutting season to stop the cutting of grass right up to the tree's trunk, and further, that a small buffer of grass be left around tree trunks, as recommended by former city forester Craig Huff.

 

 

Here we are three years later and we can still witness injury to city trees caused by string weed trimmers used to remove all grass right up to the base of the trees.

See attached pictures taken on the morning of May 17th 2011 which clearly illustrate the continued practice of damaging city trees by using string weed trimmers.

Whether the machines had a protector guard or not did not seem to matter, as one tree after another was damaged by the operators.

The city's standard practice to remove the grass right up to the tree-trunk needs to be amended to stop this destructive practice. A buffer area around the tree trunk is required in order to protect it from injury from all grass cutting machinery.

When the tree trunks are damaged mechanically, the tree is weakened and becomes susceptible to disease, ultimately killing the tree.

The health of city trees grown on grassed areas is often severely compromised by the use of string weed trimmers and mowers, often resulting in the long-term damage and death of the trees.

These mechanically damaged, dying and dead trees have to be replaced at additional expense to the city. It appears that the city provides funding to one city department to plant trees and pays another department to damage and destroy them.

The OFGAC passed a motion calling on the city to change its mowing practices on March 23, 2009. The Motion can be read from OFGAC Minutes of Meeting of March 2009 at http://ottawa.ca/calendar/ottawa/citycouncil/a-ofac/2009/03-23/minutes21.txt And, photographs of tree trunk damage were also submitted by the Ottawa Horticultural Society, and can be seen at http://www.ottawahort.org/2008treedamage.htm Also, a subsequent article was submitted and can be viewed at http://www.eastottawa.ca/article-238714-Resident-fighting-for-better-plant-protection.html

We are now in starting the spring mowing season of 2011. We ask if you could please change the city's mowing practices to stop injuring city trees by adopting a different approach. Ottawa could be a best-practices leader in the Province of Ontario if it wanted to.

Nicole Parent, Chair
Ottawa Forests and Greenspace Advisory Committee

Attachment: Tree Damage Photographs - May 17th 2011.pdf [500 KB]

 

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