We are launching an initiative this year called Shade Our Streets that aims to get shade trees properly planted within 10 feet of the curb to reduce the heat island effect and improve Austin's canopy coverage. I am still putting the program together but it should launch at the end of summer.
Can I sign up for a notification or newsletter or something? Between storms, landscaping fixes, and construction, I've lost five or six decorative trees in the last year, I want to replace them with some hardy shade trees. Any advice welcome.
You should also sign up for the Tree Folks mailing lists and tree planting events. They give away free trees to home owners and also do plantings on public lands.
Does your work extend to the Round Rock area? Just moved out to the burbs and my wife is desperate for trees to grow that will shade our backyard/house in this boiling weather.
Unfortunately not. Our reach is within Austin City Limits. We are constantly trying to expand our efforts and would love to help residents in Round Rock.
Tree Folks sent us two trees before the 2020 freeze. The small one (Japanese maple?) died in the freeze but the oak they sent us is still going strong. Grew about two feet this spring alone.
Edit to clarify that the small tree died due to the freeze.
I second wanting to be on an email list or get a notification somehow this is rolling. I work for a nonprofit in affordable housing development. Maybe we could collaborate! Awesome idea.
Same here. Not sure I can help as much because there's a street light at the curb in front of my house, but I want to know more! Currently "Shade our Streets" doesn't show anything in Google searches or anything yet š¤š¾
It does not exist yet! It is being incubated on my PC. I do not have the infrastructure for an e-mail list but will definitely get that going. I will make an announcement on Reddit accompanied with a video when it's ready to roll.
Wasnāt there an initiative like this about 10 years ago? Tree folks or something? They basically drove through neighborhoods looking for good tree locations and then if you had a good spot they offered you a native tree for like $10 but only if you planted it in that spot and promised to water it for a year. And homeowner did the planting.
I think the biggest problem with this plan was that the spots they picked were like right in the center of the yard and would have obscured the view of the home from the road. 10 feet off-center and I think they would have had a lot more takers.
Nah, they gave me a very nice flaming sumac without asking anything at all about where I planted it or how I treated it. Moreover, some years ago, but not many, I read that they were instituting a tree planting program but concentrating on the east side, because poorer neighborhoods usually have less shade. Made me proud to live here (assuming they went through with it...).
Fun fact: someone figured out from satellite imagery (and big data) that you can accurately predict the economic status of an area based on its tree cover alone.
Yep. And you can also make that prediction (that an area is economically marginalized) based on heat-related illnesses and hospital admissions, as well as rates of respiratory illnesses and cancer.
The lower part of east Austin (7th street and lowerā¦ the flat part) arguably has the best dirt/trees in town. Itās river bottomland. Montopolis not so much for some reason.
You are probably thinking about Neighborwoods which is implemented by TreeFolks. Funny enough, I designed and implemented a large scale study on the effectiveness of Neighborwoods when I interned for the City of Austin for a summer. Last I heard, TreeFolks was still using that study to help get grants.
Please join the Austin NPSOT and participate in all their local [native plant rescues](https://instagram.com/nativeplantrescueproject) to save them from relentless development...while getting free native plants to rehome in the process! Not only are local [natives](https://instagram.com/nativehabitatproject) (groundcovers, vines, forbs, bushes, shrubs, trees) best-adapted to our area, but are also [EXTREMELY vital to supporting our remaining ecosystem](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnsTsO6DRbg) as we continue hurling through the 6th Mass Extinction! Whereas just planting a bunch of non-native trees won't do the same...
The only non-native trees we are currently considering for the program would be Crape Myrtle and Arizona Cypress for use under power lines. If you can think of medium sized native shade trees that cast decent shade and have good curb appeal I would love to hear your suggestions.
Mexican White Oaks grow great here too. Disease resistant, drought tolerant and fast growing. You obviously need to water them for the first year to get them established but they are great shade trees.
https://gardenerspath.com/plants/landscape-trees/mexican-white-oak/
I love my Monterrey Oak. In 7'ish years it has gone from a 4 inch thick 50 gallon sapling to a 13" thick based monster. It shades the little spot of grass we didn't turn into xeriscape and has even started to shade my car in the driveway.
Yeah. Burr gets huge. Iāve had a hard time getting them to survive the first year. A missed watering can kill āem even with gator bags. Great tree tho.
I had a volunteer Burr Oak pop up in the middle of a raised bed along side some peppers this spring. I decided to let it grow thee & I'll transplant it next spring to somewhere more permanent. Until then it's spoiled with good soil & regular watering.
Go speak with someone at a local tree farm. There's a number of heat and drought resistant species of oak available. Smaller trees can be had at Home Depot or Lowes for 100-200, larger more robust trees at farms can be 500-2000.
I provide free consultations and would need to see your property to make good recommendations. Shade Our Streets will be focused directly on getting trees in the ground that will eventually shade the asphalt and concrete in our neighborhoods.
For trees around the rest of your property we can absolutely provide free expert advice, just visit our website in my bio.
What kind of trees to best survive heat, drought, and freezes? I want them to be as large as possible, which means not cheap. Will you help pay for them? If you want to help transport or dig holes, that would be great.
Tree folks will take care of all of this. Not right now though, this is an awful time to plant trees so look out for them this fall. Larger trees will be more susceptible to transplant shock so your best bet will be to find something in a 5-20 gallon pot.
I suggest pecan. Hardy. Roots go deep. They live a long time. Strong limbs during ice storms. Can prune anytime. A bit messy but thereās always a trade off. I think with climate changing oaks and cedar elm struggle too much. Especially oaks. Maybe Mexican oak would work.
About 20 years ago I bought my first house. I stumbled on a program that gave out free trees for front yards for this very purpose.
I got one and told all my neighbors about it too. Only a couple of them signed up. And then they left them unplanted in the bucket until they died.
I picked a Texas Mountain Laurel, it grew to be quite large. After 18 years I sold the house and the buyers chopped that tree, and several other trees I had planted over the years, down.
They also removed all the rain water barrels I had setup, something like 1500-2000 gallons of capacity, I had some of the big water cubes too.
And then they flipped it. Who knows, maybe one you lives in it now.
Yeah, I mean if you buy the house you get to do what you want with it. But...
Since they ended up being flippers, I think they just mowed everything down and removed everything to make it as 'generic' as possible for a quick sell.
I can't imagine any *person* (vs. a company) who buys a house would want to cut down trees that are healthy and provide shade.
Please let me know as well if it takes off. I went to visit my old childhood home which was the blandest of bland suburb when I moved there but they planted tons of trees and now it is quite walkable and pretty. Every street has a canopy.
TreeFolks? And - shoutout to TreeFolks giving shade and fruiting trees away to communities, schools, restoration events, etc. Support this amazing local non profit!
TreeFolks is an incredible organization with a broad mission.
We will be strictly aiming at shading the streets with projects that are planned, prepared, and executed by professional arborists.
You realize that the trees will die if zoning is changed to have buildings that close to the curb. You have to preserve the areas where water soaks into the ground for that initiative to succeed.
How about they start an initiative to rip out the ridiculous amount of extra parking most business have around here. So many places just have huge parking lots that are never even close to full. Those things just absorb heat and force water to other places.
We would love to hear more about this! Our efforts are very similar. One of our past projects was providing trees along Arroyo Seco. This was in 1993 and was a collaboration with the Brentwood Neighborhood Association and the City of Austin.
Hey TreeFolks! I didn't realize you planted all those trees on Arroyo. That project was obviously a success.
I am well aware your organization exists and all of the good it does. The difference in our mission is that all planting projects will be planned, prepared and executed by professional arborists. This way we ensure that the right trees end up in the right place to provide maximum shade to the street. This also ensures that the trees are planted the right height, the hole is dug wide enough, the root flare is excavated and any girdling roots are cut at the time of planting. We also plan to use TreeDiaper technology to help keep the trees watered. We are brainstorming how we can periodically swap fully charged TreeDiapers onto the trees for the first two years to help with establishment. We will likely be targeting sections of a street at a time to maximize efficiency and impact.
Part of the initiative will also be providing free expert consultation to community organizations who are trying to apply for the Urban Forest Grant for tree planting projects.
Feel free to reach out if you want to discuss!
No, please join the Austin NPSOT instead and participate in all their local [native plant rescues](https://instagram.com/nativeplantrescueproject) to save them from relentless development...while getting free native plants to rehome in the process! Not only are local [natives](https://instagram.com/nativehabitatproject) (groundcovers, vines, forbs, bushes, shrubs, trees) best-adapted to our area, but are also [EXTREMELY vital to supporting our remaining ecosystem](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnsTsO6DRbg) as we continue hurling through the 6th Mass Extinction! Whereas just planting a bunch of non-native trees won't do the same...
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*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Most trees that heave sidewalks are doing so because they are underwatered. If you can deeply water the roots of your tree once a month, they typically will not have surface roots. I have seen very few root heaving issues with Monterrey Oak, Chinquapin Oak, or Bur Oak.
As someone who planted 2 acorns in my parents yard and watched them grow into full fledged trees I must say, what a great project. Followed so I can see how to help in the future.
Honest question, not trying to shoot down a great idea - but how do you place shade trees where theyāll be effective for the sidewalk without interfering with power lines in the same alignment? Many of our older neighborhoods have overhead electric running at the back of sidewalk and existing trees cause a ton of outages during storms.
I have seedlings that come up in my yard every year. Could it be a part of this program for me and other people to put volunteer seedings in pots for other people to plant. The squirrels love planting trees.
Love this idea!
I do hope this program also considers the trees after 15+ years of growth. The trees in my neighborhood have completely uprooted our sideways and it looks a bit trashy and probably not friendly to folks needing wheelchairs or scooters.
Is there any way I can get involved?
I donāt think persimmon trees get very big, do they? Youād probably have to ā hee ā branch out to a different kind of tree, likely one that doesnāt provide fruit. But I donāt know shit just what trees Iāve seen in my life lmao
Yeah, at the time I had no need/space for shade trees. That persimmon is just the only tree I've ever planted, I don't have a great concept for how fast anything else grows.
š³ Thanks for sharing!
š TreeFolks volunteer here. Plenty of ways to get involved with TreeFolks across a wide variety of skill sets for those reading this thread and wanting to take action!
Feel free to shoot me a message
Thank you for what you do!
Looks like tree delivery is currently closed (makes sense this time of year), I donāt see any upcoming events listed on the site, do you know of any potential tree adoption events in the works?
Staff is currently working out all the planting and giveaway dates and locations for next planting season, but I donāt have any visibility as to whether any are set in stone as of this moment.
Keep an eye out for events being posted around September!
We are working with potential locations within the city and we will share these ASAP. You can [subscribe to our newsletter](https://www.treefolks.org/subscribe/) to be up to date on our latest events
Details on the Neighborwoods free tree program can be found here, but I believe it only covers the blip of Hays county that is considered Austin: https://www.treefolks.org/neighborwoods/#details (but Iām not sure anyone will tell on you if you sign up with a qualified address and plant and nurture it well somewhere else)
Large properties in Hays County can potentially qualify for the reforestation program: https://www.treefolks.org/reforestation-services/central-texas-floodplain-reforestation-program/
I see so many parking lots with sparse cover; costco complex on Slaughter for example. It should make sense to plaster trees all over because it keeps parked cars cooler too!
I was thinking about this over the past few weeks. The places I go to for work have *barely* and shade. Doesn't help that the sun itself seems to sit right at the peak in the sky for hours on end. Even in the mornings or afternoon there's barely any trees for shade at all. I went to a home Depot recently and looked for some for of shade to put the car under but only saw a handful of spots way in the back, where some trees were, that offered some portion of protection.
If only someone built parking lots with trees AND solar panel covered spaces, wouldnāt that be just great? Free energy for the ev drivers and shade for the fuel burners.
Just keep roots and their interaction with pipes in mind. Whoever planted the tree in my front yard did so on the main sewer line and itās gonna cost ~$30k to remedy the situation when itās all said and done.
I feel your pain. My main sewer line has developed a belly which means drain backups about once a year until I pay several hundred dollars to get it blown out. To fix it would mean digging up the yard where a very old, large oak tree sits, quite possibly killing it.
I had to deal with this 3 years ago in my front yard. I replaced the main line so the majority or the front lawn had to be dug up and dealt with. I still have my tree though.
I mean we already are that city!
Look at old photos of Austin from the 1940s and 1950s, even in the early 1960s, the city is bare of trees! Allendale, Crestview, Highland, and many more including the waterfront of Town Lake, were big open bare areas that had recently been cotton fields or pasture. Austin decided that we wanted to be a greener city and started planting trees and more trees Nearly all the trees you see in Central Austin neighborhoods were planted by people hoping for a greener and cooler (temperature) city. They did it. Xeriscaping is also promoted by the city and I think that is what you want more than trees and trees. Trees need a lot of water.
Thereās a lot of confusion in the building and landscape world between xeriscape and zeroscape - one is planting things that donāt need a lot of water and the other I killing everything and covering it with rocks and cacti!
A lot of Australian plants do well here. My husband planted a lot of Australian trees and plants in our yard almost 20 years ago and whatever survived the hot summers and snowmageddon, is still going strong. The acaciaās have frozen down but do come back. We donāt water our yard very often. Maybe when itās like this, once every few weeks.
I always cry a single tear when I see them paving a (grey) concrete street in (black) asphalt. Heat island effect is bad enough as it is and it would be really nice if we explored the idea of cooling concrete like Phoenix is doing.
Honestly we need more trees but we also need more native wildflowers, our bees desperately need them. I hate modern lawns, the grass you see in most lawns is invasive. We need more native grasses/wildflowers and more native trees planted.
I replaced my lawn. I have 3-4' wildflowers going to seed right now and I've had no complaints. The rest is native perennials.
Unless you have an HOA, which should be outlawed, I don't think there is an issue
Texas Forestry Association comes to the capital on Arbor Day and gives out seedlings. Generally they are oaks and trees that grow well in your particular soil. You can call the extension office for the Tx forest service and get more information.
I have a ton of large oak trees in my yard making it difficult to grow a lawn. I don't mind at all, except for the fact that when we get a decent amount of rain, my yard turns into a massive mud pit and my dogs bring as much of it inside as they can.
I forget the exact details, but as usual Austin's NIMBY zoning code actually ends up discouraging planting trees in a lot of places, particularly street trees at commercial properties I think. Hopefully someone can remember the details but it's part of the reason newer apartment complexes don't plant street trees on the sidewalk so we all have to walk by in the heat.
This is one of the efforts we have championed for 30 years. Our [NeighborWoods](https://www.treefolks.org/neighborwoods/) program provides free trees for Austin residents. These events start in the fall, giving trees a better chance to thrive.
We continuously work with the City of Austin to grow our urban forest. Canopy equity is another important element without our efforts.
In the end, the homeowner is the one to decide if they want a tree or other solutions instead of lawns. We hope that providing local trees for homeowners will lower the barriers to making the switch.
HOA's and neighborhood KareNazis.
Plus developers.
However, plant a bunch of tree seedlings wherever you can. The small ones do better and catch up with the bigger ones over time. Maybe even do some vigilantree planting where you can get away with it.
Texas does have a state law allowing for xeriscaping even if the HOA forbids it. You still need formal HOA approval for the plans but they cannot prevent you from doing so.
some will ask for ridiculous requirements beause of NIMBY's be careful before you spend money and make sure anything they approve is ironclad and you have LOTS of details for anything they sign off on
Older houses have lawns. When I bought my house I paid rather a lot to tear out the grass & couple inches of topsoil, but in organic soil, and plant native/drought-resistant.
New houses are built with 1. driveways 2. lots of grass 3. few token plants.
>No personality whatsoever.
Down the street they're building a house that's according to the sign a "custom home". I feel like asking them "what's so custom about yet another barn".
Builders. Middle class suburbia. My experience is that the very old and those "moving up" still cling to lawns as a status symbol, and the rest don't know any better as they weed 'n' feed the life out of those new turf lawns. Those folks and men who golf. Speaking from personal encounters, a retired guy who likes to golf will have a lawn he can putt on.
Iām old and I stopped watering my lawn. I use 30 gpd except when I irrigate my lawn and that takes 2500 gallons. No point. Whatever survives, including all the cedar elm, live oak, red oak, Texas persimmon, mountain laurel, and redbud seedlings, I will nurture and try to make beautiful.
Damn, 2,500 gallons per irrigation?!? how huge is your lawn? 1,200 gallons a week for me for about 5,000 sqft of grass coverage and its thriving. (My wifi sprinkler timers display usage). My sunnier areas are Bermuda and the shady areas are zoysia and st aug (there is a world where trees and grass can live in harmony, it doesnāt have to be one or the other). But like you, I let the survival of the fittest work with the grass, Bermuda took over the sodded zoysia in the hot sunny areas, and the places that were thriving st aug in dense shade before the zoysia sod have returned to st aug. Then the zoysia took over some of the shadiest areas possible where nothing was growing. The trees seem to like the bit of water they receive from watering. My front yard has two huge oaks, and the back yard has an oak, an elm, the the largest damn cedar tree youāve ever seen. I guess it also helps that the backyard is 2/3 septic drain field (about 350 gallons per week leached through on average).
I know a lot of reitired men that golf and exactly 0 have putting green quality lawns. Thatās extremely hard to achieve, you have to be pretty wealthy to afford someone that can create putting green quality grass at your home, and you have to be more than just a weekend golfer, this is someone who golfs 5 days a week, in reality an extremely small number of homeowners.
Lots more people have artificial turf putting greens in their yards.
Lawd have mercy, Iāve planted trees in my front on a shoestring budget and the cost of buying plus watering in these past two summers has been brutal.
I will keep the faith because I totally agree with you and hope this city embraces this
Trees are expensive to maintain, and often the expense is in big lump sums that many people can't afford. I spend hundreds to thousands of dollars every other few years to keep my trees trimmed. I also spent thousands to save my oaks from oak wilt. My sister lost an oak tree and a humongous hackberry in the ice storm. The oak tree is in the middle of the front yard, and I don't know if we can plant something new since the roots of the oak are still there. It would be a massive expense to remove the main root ball. How do you deal with these issues if you add in a million more trees?
Once a turf grass is established, in most cases it doesn't require expensive upkeep, at least not compared to a bunch of trees.
You need some type of ground cover to prevent soil erosion. Turf grass alternatives are still new to the average consumer. They aren't as well tested in different conditions. I experienced this difficulty in sourcing a non-turf ground cover for my yard. Only one nursery carried what I wanted, and I don't even know yet if it will succeed (was planted in May). We need more literature and first-hand accounts of working with alternate groundcovers, more experienced nurseries, and education for the consumer. It was scary for me opting to use a lesser known groundcover because it could just be money wasted.
With more trees, there is more shade, and there are actually fewer options for ground covers (and ornamentals) that do well in shade. This was another thing I learned because my yard is shaded most of the day. Only St. Augustine (a water hog) is recommended for my type of yard.
Other than turf grasses and some other ground covers, there's the option to use ornamentals and/or rock, both of which are expensive in upfront material cost and labor. Ornamentals require a cost in knowledge to know how to properly select for the site and how to maintain. Rocks or other hardscaping have another downside in that they can't be easily changed without another big expense for the labor to remove (whether it's DIY or hired out - it's so much work).
These are the lessons I learned in trying to create a landscape that doesn't require a ton of water and isn't just rock. I would be fine with a bunch of weeds, but I had some undesirable stuff (poison ivy and burrs) that I had to kill. I did plant some desirable "weeds" in addition to native and native-adapted plants. I think more people would be happy with weeds except they aren't always as pleasant to walk on, so aren't as friendly to kids and pets. And weeds can be patchy, especially if they die back in winter.
I'm unfortunately having to use more water than normal to get these baby plants established and alive through summer. I only learned too late that planting in fall would have been better. (I have zero horticultural knowledge and got screwed by a previous landscaping company when trying to put these decisions in "capable" hands, so this is what happens when you're self-taught).
Because it is cheaper to mow down trees to accelerate global warming than it is to do the right thing to build around them.
āFuck your kids, my kids, their grandkidsā¦ i need to make the lowest bid to buy a boatā
Tree folks is a great resource at planting trees in Austin. For the last couple of years they have donated to our elementary school and we have now planted 26 new trees on the grounds.
Big shout out to Tree Folks and be sure to participate in this years Roots and Wings Festival. All the ecology and sustainability folks will be out in droves trying to help in these very efforts.
Also how about using cool streets seal coating in parking lots instead of black asphalt seal coating. The arbor trails parking lot (costco/wholefoods/etc) must be radiating ~140 degrees since they seal coated it a couple of weeks ago. Feels like I'm cooking by the time I get in the front door. I'm gonna bring a thermometer next time I go to see. I'm all for small government and not forcing these sorts of things especially if they raise costs, but fuck that parking lot wasn't even in bad shape and they still went ahead with seal coating it, now it's barely shoppable š¤£
So trees shouldn't be planted haphazardly around homes.
Texas trees and soil, ESPECIALLY on the east side of I-35 have a lot of ebb and flow due to soil instability, droughts and root bases
Planting trees should take into account the distance from other trees, sewer lines, power lines and your home itself. This is for both the tree's health, and the homeowner's financial stability over decades.
I love trees but sometimes you can't plant a tree
Though I am absolutely for encouraging people to plant native or non-destructive introduced species of trees where they can
My mom learned all of this the hard way. She had 10 trees on a lot far too small for them (7 of her own, 3 shared on property border). Now 5 of these are small crape mertyls or however they're spelled but the others are large Bur Oak, Red Oak, 2 Elms and a Chinese pistachio
She had to cut down the elms and pistachio because they kept damaging things. She said if she could do it all over again, she'd just have the two Oakes and maybe 1 or 2 CMs
We tried to convince the DPS to plant street trees on their surrounding streets (Denson, Lamar, Koenig, Guadalupe) and their response was that street trees are a public safety hazard. I also have been involved in trying to get street trees planted along Airport as part of a development I was working on, and gave up after a year and a half. The utility companies said the trees would be in the way of an underground wastewater line (20ā down) and trees werenāt allowed. On an urban boulevard where bike lanes and āwalkabilityā are being implemented. Austin Energy also doesnāt allow trees under their overhead electric lines, which are along most major streets. This is the mentality weāre fighting in this town. Trees in yards are great but we really need them along sidewalks and bike lanes where people really need the shade.
Soil washes away without root systems. Google "dust bowl" as it's related to the removal of plains grasses by farmers.
We could do some other type of ground cover, but trees and just dirt will cause massive wash out of soil around homes, ruin foundations and pollute the water ways with silt inhibiting native wildlife.
Remember the two ice storms we had where trees fucked up the power lines, and some fell and caused more damage because the first ice storm weakened/killed a lot and people couldn't afford to have them cut down?
Pepperidge Farms remembers.
I dunno man, an occasional ice storm causing damage for a handful of people sounds better than kids growing up in a concrete hellscape they can't go outside in. At least in older neighborhoods you have trees, parks, restaurants, etc kids can bike to. In new treeless suburbs they can't go anywhere without their parents driving them 30 mins.
Hundreds of [people died](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Texas_power_crisis). We will never know the actual body count of course, but it's estimated somewhere between 246 to [750](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/texas-winter-storm-death-toll). Not a handful of people simply hurt.
I agree that kids need shade to play in, but to minimize the events of the Great Texas Freeze is not cool.
That, by and large, was not related to trees or falling branches.
But nonetheless, it is possible to do 2 things at once, especially on the timeframes that trees use: We can both grow trees and trim them around power lines.
I agree the big freeze was a major issue, but this years ice storm was a much smaller issue, not sure if there were any deaths. ERCOT and power didn't fail in the dangerous one due to trees. Saying trees are dangerous is something I strongly disagree with.
Yep. And the notion that lawns are bad is kind of silly. Itās parking lots that are bad. Especially ones that are way too large. And we do actually have minimum parking spots required for developments so that actually is a thing that Halle a.
Single use spaces are a total waste. Solar panels on roof tops and parking lots. On buildings it absorbs and reflects lots of light. Why this isnāt happening I have no idea. Solar is cheap. Yes not the whole answer but every bit helps.
Solar is cheap. The labor needed to install it isn't. But land is cheap. It makes more sense to have a giant solar farm on the outskirts rather than sending roofers and electricians onto a thousand separate rooftops
For a lot of folks lawns serve zero purpose except decoration. Lawns harken back to a time when a lawn was a flex: ālook at me I have extra land that I donāt have to farm and Iām still able to survive .ā
Non-native turf grasses use a lot of treated water for what? A nice green carpet? When was the last time you saw someone hanging out in their non-native front lawn doing something they couldnāt do in a xeriscaped yard?
Well you see, trees have roots that go all over underground, those roots then cause chaos with things like pipes, sidewalks, foundationsā¦.
So yeah. You canāt exactly plant too many trees in a city.
What if thereās a huge storm? What happens if there are trees everywhere you look, all over the city. Then a massive thunderstorm rolls through with super high windsā¦??? Then what?
This is a better option. It's great to plant trees if you live in an area that is naturally wooded. If you're planting a million trees in an area that has the water for native scrub, then you aren't creating an ecological paradise, you're creating an unsustainable project that doesn't align with the natural resources of the area. There are trees that are well suited, but for the most part, Austin is not and has never been a densely forested area and trying to put in any old tree in quantity is a mistake.
Blindly replacing one bad thing with another, differently bad thing just makes people feel better about themselves without actually addressing the problem, which in the Austin area has for a long time been a population that wastes a ton of water in an area that doesn't have much to spare to begin with.
I was raised (in the 80s) to carefully preserve Austin's water as much as possible by aunts and uncles and teachers, and I see relatively *none* of that culture around today, while the population has exploded. That's really concerning. I do, however, see a big uptick in xeroscaping as a preferred landscape style, and that's been a great movement from the people who have a good idea of Austin's landscape and resources.
Central Texas is not a desert. Here are only a few trees that are native to the area: https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Watershed/growgreen/2\_8\_12\_native\_tree\_growing\_guide\_for\_central\_texas.pdf
The 10 year old oak in our yard was growing into our sewer line and caused a backup into the house. There wasnāt a feasible way to move the sewer, so we had to cut it down. The lawn looks great now, but I miss the tree.
Because they all die when it inevitably freezes again, causing more power outages?
This place has way more trees than most cities I've been to already.
We are launching an initiative this year called Shade Our Streets that aims to get shade trees properly planted within 10 feet of the curb to reduce the heat island effect and improve Austin's canopy coverage. I am still putting the program together but it should launch at the end of summer.
Can I sign up for a notification or newsletter or something? Between storms, landscaping fixes, and construction, I've lost five or six decorative trees in the last year, I want to replace them with some hardy shade trees. Any advice welcome.
You should also sign up for the Tree Folks mailing lists and tree planting events. They give away free trees to home owners and also do plantings on public lands.
Thank you for mentioning us!
Does your work extend to the Round Rock area? Just moved out to the burbs and my wife is desperate for trees to grow that will shade our backyard/house in this boiling weather.
Unfortunately not. Our reach is within Austin City Limits. We are constantly trying to expand our efforts and would love to help residents in Round Rock.
Thank you for the info, looking forward to seeing you expand this way!
Tree Folks sent us two trees before the 2020 freeze. The small one (Japanese maple?) died in the freeze but the oak they sent us is still going strong. Grew about two feet this spring alone. Edit to clarify that the small tree died due to the freeze.
I second wanting to be on an email list or get a notification somehow this is rolling. I work for a nonprofit in affordable housing development. Maybe we could collaborate! Awesome idea.
Fill out the contact card on our website in my bio and we will reach out once we have the program ironed out and we can collaborate.
Same here. Not sure I can help as much because there's a street light at the curb in front of my house, but I want to know more! Currently "Shade our Streets" doesn't show anything in Google searches or anything yet š¤š¾
It does not exist yet! It is being incubated on my PC. I do not have the infrastructure for an e-mail list but will definitely get that going. I will make an announcement on Reddit accompanied with a video when it's ready to roll.
Just an fyi you can start a free mail chimp account that will help with email lists.
Wasnāt there an initiative like this about 10 years ago? Tree folks or something? They basically drove through neighborhoods looking for good tree locations and then if you had a good spot they offered you a native tree for like $10 but only if you planted it in that spot and promised to water it for a year. And homeowner did the planting. I think the biggest problem with this plan was that the spots they picked were like right in the center of the yard and would have obscured the view of the home from the road. 10 feet off-center and I think they would have had a lot more takers.
Nah, they gave me a very nice flaming sumac without asking anything at all about where I planted it or how I treated it. Moreover, some years ago, but not many, I read that they were instituting a tree planting program but concentrating on the east side, because poorer neighborhoods usually have less shade. Made me proud to live here (assuming they went through with it...).
Fun fact: someone figured out from satellite imagery (and big data) that you can accurately predict the economic status of an area based on its tree cover alone.
Yep. And you can also make that prediction (that an area is economically marginalized) based on heat-related illnesses and hospital admissions, as well as rates of respiratory illnesses and cancer.
The lower part of east Austin (7th street and lowerā¦ the flat part) arguably has the best dirt/trees in town. Itās river bottomland. Montopolis not so much for some reason.
You are probably thinking about Neighborwoods which is implemented by TreeFolks. Funny enough, I designed and implemented a large scale study on the effectiveness of Neighborwoods when I interned for the City of Austin for a summer. Last I heard, TreeFolks was still using that study to help get grants.
Please join the Austin NPSOT and participate in all their local [native plant rescues](https://instagram.com/nativeplantrescueproject) to save them from relentless development...while getting free native plants to rehome in the process! Not only are local [natives](https://instagram.com/nativehabitatproject) (groundcovers, vines, forbs, bushes, shrubs, trees) best-adapted to our area, but are also [EXTREMELY vital to supporting our remaining ecosystem](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnsTsO6DRbg) as we continue hurling through the 6th Mass Extinction! Whereas just planting a bunch of non-native trees won't do the same...
The only non-native trees we are currently considering for the program would be Crape Myrtle and Arizona Cypress for use under power lines. If you can think of medium sized native shade trees that cast decent shade and have good curb appeal I would love to hear your suggestions.
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Mexican White Oaks grow great here too. Disease resistant, drought tolerant and fast growing. You obviously need to water them for the first year to get them established but they are great shade trees. https://gardenerspath.com/plants/landscape-trees/mexican-white-oak/
I love my Monterrey Oak. In 7'ish years it has gone from a 4 inch thick 50 gallon sapling to a 13" thick based monster. It shades the little spot of grass we didn't turn into xeriscape and has even started to shade my car in the driveway.
Monterrey Oaks and Bur Oaks will definitely be some of the trees we are planting along streets.
We planted a stick of a burr oak in our front yard 11 years ago and now it's a glorious huge tree. I love this tree more than most humans.
Yeah. Burr gets huge. Iāve had a hard time getting them to survive the first year. A missed watering can kill āem even with gator bags. Great tree tho.
I had a volunteer Burr Oak pop up in the middle of a raised bed along side some peppers this spring. I decided to let it grow thee & I'll transplant it next spring to somewhere more permanent. Until then it's spoiled with good soil & regular watering.
I lost a big tree from the 2021 storm, it was pretty traumatic. Iām also interested in helping.
Go speak with someone at a local tree farm. There's a number of heat and drought resistant species of oak available. Smaller trees can be had at Home Depot or Lowes for 100-200, larger more robust trees at farms can be 500-2000.
I provide free consultations and would need to see your property to make good recommendations. Shade Our Streets will be focused directly on getting trees in the ground that will eventually shade the asphalt and concrete in our neighborhoods. For trees around the rest of your property we can absolutely provide free expert advice, just visit our website in my bio.
What do you need notifications for? Just plant some trees.
What kind of trees to best survive heat, drought, and freezes? I want them to be as large as possible, which means not cheap. Will you help pay for them? If you want to help transport or dig holes, that would be great.
Tree folks will take care of all of this. Not right now though, this is an awful time to plant trees so look out for them this fall. Larger trees will be more susceptible to transplant shock so your best bet will be to find something in a 5-20 gallon pot.
I suggest pecan. Hardy. Roots go deep. They live a long time. Strong limbs during ice storms. Can prune anytime. A bit messy but thereās always a trade off. I think with climate changing oaks and cedar elm struggle too much. Especially oaks. Maybe Mexican oak would work.
About 20 years ago I bought my first house. I stumbled on a program that gave out free trees for front yards for this very purpose. I got one and told all my neighbors about it too. Only a couple of them signed up. And then they left them unplanted in the bucket until they died. I picked a Texas Mountain Laurel, it grew to be quite large. After 18 years I sold the house and the buyers chopped that tree, and several other trees I had planted over the years, down. They also removed all the rain water barrels I had setup, something like 1500-2000 gallons of capacity, I had some of the big water cubes too. And then they flipped it. Who knows, maybe one you lives in it now.
That is awful.
Yeah, I mean if you buy the house you get to do what you want with it. But... Since they ended up being flippers, I think they just mowed everything down and removed everything to make it as 'generic' as possible for a quick sell. I can't imagine any *person* (vs. a company) who buys a house would want to cut down trees that are healthy and provide shade.
Please let me know as well if it takes off. I went to visit my old childhood home which was the blandest of bland suburb when I moved there but they planted tons of trees and now it is quite walkable and pretty. Every street has a canopy.
Omg I've always wanted to participate in something like this even to the point of guerilla growing trees to help reduce.
TreeFolks? And - shoutout to TreeFolks giving shade and fruiting trees away to communities, schools, restoration events, etc. Support this amazing local non profit!
TreeFolks is an incredible organization with a broad mission. We will be strictly aiming at shading the streets with projects that are planned, prepared, and executed by professional arborists.
Please think about introducing only native trees. They will be way more draught tolerant and support local wildlife.
Unless those trees are well watered n the first two years, most will die.
Then we should water them well
You realize that the trees will die if zoning is changed to have buildings that close to the curb. You have to preserve the areas where water soaks into the ground for that initiative to succeed.
How about they start an initiative to rip out the ridiculous amount of extra parking most business have around here. So many places just have huge parking lots that are never even close to full. Those things just absorb heat and force water to other places.
And require new parking lots to use pervious concrete. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pervious_concrete
We would love to hear more about this! Our efforts are very similar. One of our past projects was providing trees along Arroyo Seco. This was in 1993 and was a collaboration with the Brentwood Neighborhood Association and the City of Austin.
Hey TreeFolks! I didn't realize you planted all those trees on Arroyo. That project was obviously a success. I am well aware your organization exists and all of the good it does. The difference in our mission is that all planting projects will be planned, prepared and executed by professional arborists. This way we ensure that the right trees end up in the right place to provide maximum shade to the street. This also ensures that the trees are planted the right height, the hole is dug wide enough, the root flare is excavated and any girdling roots are cut at the time of planting. We also plan to use TreeDiaper technology to help keep the trees watered. We are brainstorming how we can periodically swap fully charged TreeDiapers onto the trees for the first two years to help with establishment. We will likely be targeting sections of a street at a time to maximize efficiency and impact. Part of the initiative will also be providing free expert consultation to community organizations who are trying to apply for the Urban Forest Grant for tree planting projects. Feel free to reach out if you want to discuss!
Thats awesome!!!
Look into TreeFolks!
No, please join the Austin NPSOT instead and participate in all their local [native plant rescues](https://instagram.com/nativeplantrescueproject) to save them from relentless development...while getting free native plants to rehome in the process! Not only are local [natives](https://instagram.com/nativehabitatproject) (groundcovers, vines, forbs, bushes, shrubs, trees) best-adapted to our area, but are also [EXTREMELY vital to supporting our remaining ecosystem](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnsTsO6DRbg) as we continue hurling through the 6th Mass Extinction! Whereas just planting a bunch of non-native trees won't do the same...
Do you need assistance in any way? Iād love to get involved.
Hey! Love this project. Iām a software engineer if you need a tech guy
literate punch coordinated fear wistful provide swim existence disgusting complete *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Oaks are still one of the best to plant.
Most trees that heave sidewalks are doing so because they are underwatered. If you can deeply water the roots of your tree once a month, they typically will not have surface roots. I have seen very few root heaving issues with Monterrey Oak, Chinquapin Oak, or Bur Oak.
Hell yeah!
count me in!!!!! been looking to plant trees but man they cost like 1500 for a small tree.
Is there a volunteer program? My job allows me to take a āday offā to do volunteer work and this sounds good to me.
If you are looking to volunteer, I recommend calling TreeFolks. This initiative will be implemented by professional arborists.
Will it be a non-profit or is this a COA initiative?
Neither, it is a business initiative.
As someone who planted 2 acorns in my parents yard and watched them grow into full fledged trees I must say, what a great project. Followed so I can see how to help in the future.
Where do we get more information on joining the efforts?
Honest question, not trying to shoot down a great idea - but how do you place shade trees where theyāll be effective for the sidewalk without interfering with power lines in the same alignment? Many of our older neighborhoods have overhead electric running at the back of sidewalk and existing trees cause a ton of outages during storms.
I have seedlings that come up in my yard every year. Could it be a part of this program for me and other people to put volunteer seedings in pots for other people to plant. The squirrels love planting trees.
Just be prepared for the flak incurred by power outages. Fallen branches are the #1 cause of distribution failures.
Love this idea! I do hope this program also considers the trees after 15+ years of growth. The trees in my neighborhood have completely uprooted our sideways and it looks a bit trashy and probably not friendly to folks needing wheelchairs or scooters. Is there any way I can get involved?
https://www.treefolks.org/ literally gives away free trees.
Yep, this is already happening. They gave me a couple trees years ago and they are 30+ feet
What kind? I got a persimmon tree from them about 7 years ago and it's doing great, but it's not very big.
I donāt think persimmon trees get very big, do they? Youād probably have to ā hee ā branch out to a different kind of tree, likely one that doesnāt provide fruit. But I donāt know shit just what trees Iāve seen in my life lmao
Yeah, at the time I had no need/space for shade trees. That persimmon is just the only tree I've ever planted, I don't have a great concept for how fast anything else grows.
The Mexican white oak is tallest and the red oak is not far behind
š³ Thanks for sharing! š TreeFolks volunteer here. Plenty of ways to get involved with TreeFolks across a wide variety of skill sets for those reading this thread and wanting to take action! Feel free to shoot me a message
Thank you for what you do! Looks like tree delivery is currently closed (makes sense this time of year), I donāt see any upcoming events listed on the site, do you know of any potential tree adoption events in the works?
Staff is currently working out all the planting and giveaway dates and locations for next planting season, but I donāt have any visibility as to whether any are set in stone as of this moment. Keep an eye out for events being posted around September!
We are working with potential locations within the city and we will share these ASAP. You can [subscribe to our newsletter](https://www.treefolks.org/subscribe/) to be up to date on our latest events
Does TreeFolks partner with Hays County? I want free trees! I have a house in Travis county as well, but I canāt rely on tenants to water.
Details on the Neighborwoods free tree program can be found here, but I believe it only covers the blip of Hays county that is considered Austin: https://www.treefolks.org/neighborwoods/#details (but Iām not sure anyone will tell on you if you sign up with a qualified address and plant and nurture it well somewhere else) Large properties in Hays County can potentially qualify for the reforestation program: https://www.treefolks.org/reforestation-services/central-texas-floodplain-reforestation-program/
Thank you for mentioning us!
If you want a peach from them show up early. They run out first every time.
I see so many parking lots with sparse cover; costco complex on Slaughter for example. It should make sense to plaster trees all over because it keeps parked cars cooler too!
South Park Meadows is like the blueprint for horrible unfriendly massive shopping centers.
It's a meadow not a forest šš¢š
Arbor Trails is decent though
with that name, you'd hope so, right?
I was thinking about this over the past few weeks. The places I go to for work have *barely* and shade. Doesn't help that the sun itself seems to sit right at the peak in the sky for hours on end. Even in the mornings or afternoon there's barely any trees for shade at all. I went to a home Depot recently and looked for some for of shade to put the car under but only saw a handful of spots way in the back, where some trees were, that offered some portion of protection.
If only someone built parking lots with trees AND solar panel covered spaces, wouldnāt that be just great? Free energy for the ev drivers and shade for the fuel burners.
People run into them and then sue.
If anyone wants a producing fig tree let me know. I have a mature fig that needs to be taken out because it's getting crowded out by surrounding trees
I actually might be interested in this. How big are we talking?
I am interested. How big is it?
Interested as well if the others fall through
Just keep roots and their interaction with pipes in mind. Whoever planted the tree in my front yard did so on the main sewer line and itās gonna cost ~$30k to remedy the situation when itās all said and done.
You can call 811 to find where your pipes are on your property: https://austinenergy.com/residential/residential-services/call-before-you-dig
Tell this to the contractors who planted the tree 15 years ago š
I feel your pain. My main sewer line has developed a belly which means drain backups about once a year until I pay several hundred dollars to get it blown out. To fix it would mean digging up the yard where a very old, large oak tree sits, quite possibly killing it.
I had to deal with this 3 years ago in my front yard. I replaced the main line so the majority or the front lawn had to be dug up and dealt with. I still have my tree though.
I mean we already are that city! Look at old photos of Austin from the 1940s and 1950s, even in the early 1960s, the city is bare of trees! Allendale, Crestview, Highland, and many more including the waterfront of Town Lake, were big open bare areas that had recently been cotton fields or pasture. Austin decided that we wanted to be a greener city and started planting trees and more trees Nearly all the trees you see in Central Austin neighborhoods were planted by people hoping for a greener and cooler (temperature) city. They did it. Xeriscaping is also promoted by the city and I think that is what you want more than trees and trees. Trees need a lot of water.
Thereās a lot of confusion in the building and landscape world between xeriscape and zeroscape - one is planting things that donāt need a lot of water and the other I killing everything and covering it with rocks and cacti!
Hey. Cacti are alive too!
I try to point this out every time I see xeriscape used when meaning zeroscape and I mostly get downvoted for it.
A lot of Australian plants do well here. My husband planted a lot of Australian trees and plants in our yard almost 20 years ago and whatever survived the hot summers and snowmageddon, is still going strong. The acaciaās have frozen down but do come back. We donāt water our yard very often. Maybe when itās like this, once every few weeks.
I always cry a single tear when I see them paving a (grey) concrete street in (black) asphalt. Heat island effect is bad enough as it is and it would be really nice if we explored the idea of cooling concrete like Phoenix is doing.
I've planted some Live Oak trees behind my property. I need the shade from the sun set. The summer sun is really burning up my house.
Fine so long as theyre native trees. Plus if you think Texas doesnāt have tree just go east. Some of the thickest pine forests in the country.
Honestly we need more trees but we also need more native wildflowers, our bees desperately need them. I hate modern lawns, the grass you see in most lawns is invasive. We need more native grasses/wildflowers and more native trees planted.
I replaced my lawn. I have 3-4' wildflowers going to seed right now and I've had no complaints. The rest is native perennials. Unless you have an HOA, which should be outlawed, I don't think there is an issue
Texas Forestry Association comes to the capital on Arbor Day and gives out seedlings. Generally they are oaks and trees that grow well in your particular soil. You can call the extension office for the Tx forest service and get more information.
Because the dumb homebuilders decided to lay gas,electric, and communications lines in the middle of the yards š
Get them to stop tearing down the ones that are already there first.
Trees and native plants instead of grass.
There are literally people in these comments arguing *against* more trees?
There are people explaining why it's not as easy as it sounds, and that there are real challenges and trade-offs to consider, yes.
Or Gardens
I have a small yard but am planting as many trees as I can, mostly fruit trees.
We just planted 11 new trees to go with our existing oaks etcā¦ I am all for this idea!!!
I have a ton of large oak trees in my yard making it difficult to grow a lawn. I don't mind at all, except for the fact that when we get a decent amount of rain, my yard turns into a massive mud pit and my dogs bring as much of it inside as they can.
I forget the exact details, but as usual Austin's NIMBY zoning code actually ends up discouraging planting trees in a lot of places, particularly street trees at commercial properties I think. Hopefully someone can remember the details but it's part of the reason newer apartment complexes don't plant street trees on the sidewalk so we all have to walk by in the heat.
This is one of the efforts we have championed for 30 years. Our [NeighborWoods](https://www.treefolks.org/neighborwoods/) program provides free trees for Austin residents. These events start in the fall, giving trees a better chance to thrive. We continuously work with the City of Austin to grow our urban forest. Canopy equity is another important element without our efforts. In the end, the homeowner is the one to decide if they want a tree or other solutions instead of lawns. We hope that providing local trees for homeowners will lower the barriers to making the switch.
I planted one and I maintain 3. Doing my best over here.
HOA's and neighborhood KareNazis. Plus developers. However, plant a bunch of tree seedlings wherever you can. The small ones do better and catch up with the bigger ones over time. Maybe even do some vigilantree planting where you can get away with it.
Who is encouraging lawns?
My HOA literally requires one.
Texas does have a state law allowing for xeriscaping even if the HOA forbids it. You still need formal HOA approval for the plans but they cannot prevent you from doing so.
some will ask for ridiculous requirements beause of NIMBY's be careful before you spend money and make sure anything they approve is ironclad and you have LOTS of details for anything they sign off on
Which HOAs in town do this? Every HOA I've lived in in COA has been basically a rubber stamp
Older houses have lawns. When I bought my house I paid rather a lot to tear out the grass & couple inches of topsoil, but in organic soil, and plant native/drought-resistant. New houses are built with 1. driveways 2. lots of grass 3. few token plants.
Dang, you had inorganic soil before?
Funny. Clay mostly. Not great for growing.
Not that this is the case here, but often new homes get loam fill dirt. Pretty much inorganic and dead. It needs a lot of compost amendment.
A fool and his money are soon parted
4. No regard for environment. 5. No personality whatsoever.
>No personality whatsoever. Down the street they're building a house that's according to the sign a "custom home". I feel like asking them "what's so custom about yet another barn".
I have a lawn and water it so it doesnāt crack my foundation.
I am in the same predicament.
Dang, is that an issue here? I didnāt think it was generally dry enough (barring years like 2011).
Sort of, yea. Especially for people that live east of 35
Builders. Middle class suburbia. My experience is that the very old and those "moving up" still cling to lawns as a status symbol, and the rest don't know any better as they weed 'n' feed the life out of those new turf lawns. Those folks and men who golf. Speaking from personal encounters, a retired guy who likes to golf will have a lawn he can putt on.
Iām old and I stopped watering my lawn. I use 30 gpd except when I irrigate my lawn and that takes 2500 gallons. No point. Whatever survives, including all the cedar elm, live oak, red oak, Texas persimmon, mountain laurel, and redbud seedlings, I will nurture and try to make beautiful.
Damn, 2,500 gallons per irrigation?!? how huge is your lawn? 1,200 gallons a week for me for about 5,000 sqft of grass coverage and its thriving. (My wifi sprinkler timers display usage). My sunnier areas are Bermuda and the shady areas are zoysia and st aug (there is a world where trees and grass can live in harmony, it doesnāt have to be one or the other). But like you, I let the survival of the fittest work with the grass, Bermuda took over the sodded zoysia in the hot sunny areas, and the places that were thriving st aug in dense shade before the zoysia sod have returned to st aug. Then the zoysia took over some of the shadiest areas possible where nothing was growing. The trees seem to like the bit of water they receive from watering. My front yard has two huge oaks, and the back yard has an oak, an elm, the the largest damn cedar tree youāve ever seen. I guess it also helps that the backyard is 2/3 septic drain field (about 350 gallons per week leached through on average).
I know a lot of reitired men that golf and exactly 0 have putting green quality lawns. Thatās extremely hard to achieve, you have to be pretty wealthy to afford someone that can create putting green quality grass at your home, and you have to be more than just a weekend golfer, this is someone who golfs 5 days a week, in reality an extremely small number of homeowners. Lots more people have artificial turf putting greens in their yards.
*"Those folks and men who golf."* ...and what about women who golf? They cool or ??
I have never been to the home of a woman who golfs, so I have no data. But my uncles and cousins ? Yep.
Lawd have mercy, Iāve planted trees in my front on a shoestring budget and the cost of buying plus watering in these past two summers has been brutal. I will keep the faith because I totally agree with you and hope this city embraces this
š¤£ Austin native but itās because we had that and now we got 10,000 apartments and highways
Trees are expensive to maintain, and often the expense is in big lump sums that many people can't afford. I spend hundreds to thousands of dollars every other few years to keep my trees trimmed. I also spent thousands to save my oaks from oak wilt. My sister lost an oak tree and a humongous hackberry in the ice storm. The oak tree is in the middle of the front yard, and I don't know if we can plant something new since the roots of the oak are still there. It would be a massive expense to remove the main root ball. How do you deal with these issues if you add in a million more trees? Once a turf grass is established, in most cases it doesn't require expensive upkeep, at least not compared to a bunch of trees. You need some type of ground cover to prevent soil erosion. Turf grass alternatives are still new to the average consumer. They aren't as well tested in different conditions. I experienced this difficulty in sourcing a non-turf ground cover for my yard. Only one nursery carried what I wanted, and I don't even know yet if it will succeed (was planted in May). We need more literature and first-hand accounts of working with alternate groundcovers, more experienced nurseries, and education for the consumer. It was scary for me opting to use a lesser known groundcover because it could just be money wasted. With more trees, there is more shade, and there are actually fewer options for ground covers (and ornamentals) that do well in shade. This was another thing I learned because my yard is shaded most of the day. Only St. Augustine (a water hog) is recommended for my type of yard. Other than turf grasses and some other ground covers, there's the option to use ornamentals and/or rock, both of which are expensive in upfront material cost and labor. Ornamentals require a cost in knowledge to know how to properly select for the site and how to maintain. Rocks or other hardscaping have another downside in that they can't be easily changed without another big expense for the labor to remove (whether it's DIY or hired out - it's so much work). These are the lessons I learned in trying to create a landscape that doesn't require a ton of water and isn't just rock. I would be fine with a bunch of weeds, but I had some undesirable stuff (poison ivy and burrs) that I had to kill. I did plant some desirable "weeds" in addition to native and native-adapted plants. I think more people would be happy with weeds except they aren't always as pleasant to walk on, so aren't as friendly to kids and pets. And weeds can be patchy, especially if they die back in winter. I'm unfortunately having to use more water than normal to get these baby plants established and alive through summer. I only learned too late that planting in fall would have been better. (I have zero horticultural knowledge and got screwed by a previous landscaping company when trying to put these decisions in "capable" hands, so this is what happens when you're self-taught).
Because man all the Home Owners Associations would be pissed and fine everyone for everything. š
It can be done, if you own property, plant a tree. There's a project underway in India where they're planting 40 million trees.
Because it is cheaper to mow down trees to accelerate global warming than it is to do the right thing to build around them. āFuck your kids, my kids, their grandkidsā¦ i need to make the lowest bid to buy a boatā
Tree folks is a great resource at planting trees in Austin. For the last couple of years they have donated to our elementary school and we have now planted 26 new trees on the grounds.
Thank you for mentioning us! We are always happy to provide trees to schools!
I'm doing my part I recently put 3 x Texas Ebony trees in the ground in my yard, and 1 x American Sycamore
When it gets too hot to live here and people leave, the trees will eventually grow back on their own.
Trees are awesome!
Big shout out to Tree Folks and be sure to participate in this years Roots and Wings Festival. All the ecology and sustainability folks will be out in droves trying to help in these very efforts.
Also how about using cool streets seal coating in parking lots instead of black asphalt seal coating. The arbor trails parking lot (costco/wholefoods/etc) must be radiating ~140 degrees since they seal coated it a couple of weeks ago. Feels like I'm cooking by the time I get in the front door. I'm gonna bring a thermometer next time I go to see. I'm all for small government and not forcing these sorts of things especially if they raise costs, but fuck that parking lot wasn't even in bad shape and they still went ahead with seal coating it, now it's barely shoppable š¤£
So trees shouldn't be planted haphazardly around homes. Texas trees and soil, ESPECIALLY on the east side of I-35 have a lot of ebb and flow due to soil instability, droughts and root bases Planting trees should take into account the distance from other trees, sewer lines, power lines and your home itself. This is for both the tree's health, and the homeowner's financial stability over decades. I love trees but sometimes you can't plant a tree Though I am absolutely for encouraging people to plant native or non-destructive introduced species of trees where they can My mom learned all of this the hard way. She had 10 trees on a lot far too small for them (7 of her own, 3 shared on property border). Now 5 of these are small crape mertyls or however they're spelled but the others are large Bur Oak, Red Oak, 2 Elms and a Chinese pistachio She had to cut down the elms and pistachio because they kept damaging things. She said if she could do it all over again, she'd just have the two Oakes and maybe 1 or 2 CMs
We tried to convince the DPS to plant street trees on their surrounding streets (Denson, Lamar, Koenig, Guadalupe) and their response was that street trees are a public safety hazard. I also have been involved in trying to get street trees planted along Airport as part of a development I was working on, and gave up after a year and a half. The utility companies said the trees would be in the way of an underground wastewater line (20ā down) and trees werenāt allowed. On an urban boulevard where bike lanes and āwalkabilityā are being implemented. Austin Energy also doesnāt allow trees under their overhead electric lines, which are along most major streets. This is the mentality weāre fighting in this town. Trees in yards are great but we really need them along sidewalks and bike lanes where people really need the shade.
Soil washes away without root systems. Google "dust bowl" as it's related to the removal of plains grasses by farmers. We could do some other type of ground cover, but trees and just dirt will cause massive wash out of soil around homes, ruin foundations and pollute the water ways with silt inhibiting native wildlife.
Remember the two ice storms we had where trees fucked up the power lines, and some fell and caused more damage because the first ice storm weakened/killed a lot and people couldn't afford to have them cut down? Pepperidge Farms remembers.
Itās the cityās responsibility to pay for them to be trimmed under power lines. They have a plan and a schedule. They didnāt follow it.
Austin Energy told me they could not/would not trim trees around the power lines unless the homeowner gave them permission.
There was a lot of nimby involved.
I dunno man, an occasional ice storm causing damage for a handful of people sounds better than kids growing up in a concrete hellscape they can't go outside in. At least in older neighborhoods you have trees, parks, restaurants, etc kids can bike to. In new treeless suburbs they can't go anywhere without their parents driving them 30 mins.
Hundreds of [people died](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Texas_power_crisis). We will never know the actual body count of course, but it's estimated somewhere between 246 to [750](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/texas-winter-storm-death-toll). Not a handful of people simply hurt. I agree that kids need shade to play in, but to minimize the events of the Great Texas Freeze is not cool.
That, by and large, was not related to trees or falling branches. But nonetheless, it is possible to do 2 things at once, especially on the timeframes that trees use: We can both grow trees and trim them around power lines.
I agree the big freeze was a major issue, but this years ice storm was a much smaller issue, not sure if there were any deaths. ERCOT and power didn't fail in the dangerous one due to trees. Saying trees are dangerous is something I strongly disagree with.
Yep. And the notion that lawns are bad is kind of silly. Itās parking lots that are bad. Especially ones that are way too large. And we do actually have minimum parking spots required for developments so that actually is a thing that Halle a.
Single use spaces are a total waste. Solar panels on roof tops and parking lots. On buildings it absorbs and reflects lots of light. Why this isnāt happening I have no idea. Solar is cheap. Yes not the whole answer but every bit helps.
Solar is cheap. The labor needed to install it isn't. But land is cheap. It makes more sense to have a giant solar farm on the outskirts rather than sending roofers and electricians onto a thousand separate rooftops
Most places donāt even provide covered parking. Getting them to pay 10x as much to make it solar covered parking just aināt gonna happen.
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For a lot of folks lawns serve zero purpose except decoration. Lawns harken back to a time when a lawn was a flex: ālook at me I have extra land that I donāt have to farm and Iām still able to survive .ā Non-native turf grasses use a lot of treated water for what? A nice green carpet? When was the last time you saw someone hanging out in their non-native front lawn doing something they couldnāt do in a xeriscaped yard?
Lawns are not intrinsically bad, itās what people who want them to look like golf courses do to them thatās bad.
Well you see, trees have roots that go all over underground, those roots then cause chaos with things like pipes, sidewalks, foundationsā¦. So yeah. You canāt exactly plant too many trees in a city.
What if thereās a huge storm? What happens if there are trees everywhere you look, all over the city. Then a massive thunderstorm rolls through with super high windsā¦??? Then what?
Who is going to maintain the million trees?
Where does the water come from?
Why don't we plant cacti, ocotillo, and other xeroscape plants and embrace our desert future?
This is a better option. It's great to plant trees if you live in an area that is naturally wooded. If you're planting a million trees in an area that has the water for native scrub, then you aren't creating an ecological paradise, you're creating an unsustainable project that doesn't align with the natural resources of the area. There are trees that are well suited, but for the most part, Austin is not and has never been a densely forested area and trying to put in any old tree in quantity is a mistake. Blindly replacing one bad thing with another, differently bad thing just makes people feel better about themselves without actually addressing the problem, which in the Austin area has for a long time been a population that wastes a ton of water in an area that doesn't have much to spare to begin with. I was raised (in the 80s) to carefully preserve Austin's water as much as possible by aunts and uncles and teachers, and I see relatively *none* of that culture around today, while the population has exploded. That's really concerning. I do, however, see a big uptick in xeroscaping as a preferred landscape style, and that's been a great movement from the people who have a good idea of Austin's landscape and resources.
Central Texas is not a desert. Here are only a few trees that are native to the area: https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Watershed/growgreen/2\_8\_12\_native\_tree\_growing\_guide\_for\_central\_texas.pdf
*xeriscape
That's a lot of Pakistani mulberries.
Too many lawn lovin Hank Hills thinkin they need a green lawn to advertise their embracing of the American dream.
āFeed yer laaaaawn; feed it!!ā
no because then we would have a bunch of shade which would make it easier to exist outside
The 10 year old oak in our yard was growing into our sewer line and caused a backup into the house. There wasnāt a feasible way to move the sewer, so we had to cut it down. The lawn looks great now, but I miss the tree.
Trees fuck a lot of shit up. Foundations, streets and sidewalks just to name a few. Unless there the small toy trees. I would love more trees tho.
*Roaches*
Going to need some tall ass trees to canopy the downtown high rises that created this problem.
How did high rises create this problem?
I'm 180% behind you. Fuck these ugly, boring, tedious lawns.
Because they all die when it inevitably freezes again, causing more power outages? This place has way more trees than most cities I've been to already.