Dan Karow
3/24/2011
Risk and Hazard Assessment of Urban Trees
Our society values many things, one of those being aesthetics. We love to build eye-catching buildings, put up pretty pieces of art, and even produce slick looking transportation. Considering this, it is no wonder that we value the green space of our urban areas. Walking trails, parks, and even medians in the streets, not to mention peoples’ yards, they all combine to make up green space. Trees are, of course, a huge part of the green space, and are keystones in design and aesthetics of the green space. People love to see trees in the landscape, especially large dominate ones. This desire for trees does, however, bring about a quandary.
With great trees, comes great responsibility concerning their health and form, although this pertains to all trees. Since urban areas are inhabited by a lot of people, safety is a high priority. But the average person will see a tree at its face value. They don’t have the slightest idea about all the things that could be potentially wrong with the tree. This brings the assessment of risks and hazards to the forefront of tree care. It is vital to have trees in the urban area regularly assessed by arborists trained in identifying the weaknesses or problems within trees.
This past summer, during my internship, I developed a newfound appreciation for the methodology and need of assessing trees for various risks. My internship took place at Maple Bluff Country Club (MBCC) in Madison, WI; I had worked there for five summers prior to the internship. The five precursor years that I spent working on the grounds crew gave me a good knowledge of the course and its layout. However, before this past summer, I had never really paid attention to the condition of the trees on the course. Once I undertook the project assessing and cataloging problem trees, the need for regular checkups became painfully obvious. Golf courses are considered high risk areas due to the frequent use they receive, that being said, the concern for visitor safety is high. Without doing regular inventories it is impossible to know when and where a tree may fail. There are a number of things to look for to determine if a tree is healthy and safe; branching quality, disease/insect activity, cracks, and root growth are just a few things to look for. If trees can be assessed ahead of time, it gives managers the ability to mitigate disaster and make their site safer. Assessment inventories not only point out the trees that are an immediate threat, but those trees that should be watched in the future. Throughout the duration of the summer, I assessed every tree within MBCC grounds and cataloged the trees that had a certain risk level. The inventory I prepared was categorized into low, medium, and high risk trees, this granted my superintendant knowledge on the status of the trees on the grounds and how he might best manage them. Being up to date and informed as a manager is half the battle in prevention and mitigation of crisis.
I felt that this topic was relevant due to the rapid increase of urban areas and the need for green space within them. The correlation between MBCC and other green space is that a golf course is like a large park in which many people recreate.
For further information on risk and hazard assessment please visit: http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/uf/utrmm/
4 comments:
Having lived close to big old silver maples, I can say that this type of assessment can be critical!
I agree that urban trees are a higher risk to people. Through out my five years ar UWSP I have seen many hazard trees and I am surprised that more have not come down. I think that it is important for communities to do these inventories but feel that many don't.
It does seem like a lot of communities don't perform these assessments. It's a bit puzzling as to why something concerning public safety is more or less brushed aside. It is my hope that as the knowledge of this technique expands, so does it's practice.
It would only seem logical to have these trees monitored because, although they are very beneficial to the urban environment, they can be quite hazardous. Most cities and recreational areas would be smart to regularly check the trees on their property because they are going to be the ones liable if they cause any harm or damage.
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