Quote:
Originally Posted by Forrester1998
"Blessed are those who plant trees under whose shade they will never sit" is a bit on the nose here but its worthwhile to remember that these projects are always in the interest of making the city nicer 10-20 years from now, not literally tomorrow. You actually cant just wait for trees to fully die and then plant fully mature ones the next day, it does not work like that!
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The city poorly maintained the mature trees and this is not unique to Tempe - the metro area is largely lacking in mature trees and they are replaced by "trees" that grow in "bush" form in their natural state so never stand up to the wind of summer storms. The ficus on Mill were improperly pruned and many got sooty canker - they were not at life's end. Again - shit tree management.
I'm not a moron, I understand the time a tree takes to mature which is precisely my point! The municipalities and especially HOAs responsible for large swaths of the metro area do a shit job at arboriculture as evidenced by the plain lack of mature trees city-wide.
Obviously many factors are at play, but I'd argue that from the initial large-scale adaptation of xeriscape landscaping in the late 90s through the mid 2010s led to overplanting of "trees" that, while native or drought adapted, were overly prone to breaking. I'm talking the infinite variety of palos, breas and mesquites.
The prior generations trends for non-native pines and eucalyptus have long gone - and the pines that were planted are dying in large scale across the entire city. Bark beetles, climate change and not watering deep enough has done them in. I would know, I live in Central Phoenix - this is ongoing even in flood irrigated parts of town.
I personally don't believe the xeriscape trends were good for the urban heat island OR for general enjoyment of the urban environment and really the push for conservation should instead be on industry and agriculture instead of human enjoyment and beautification of our city.
I digress.
EDIT: one observation I'm sure others have noticed but in western cities, Phoenix especially, the tree canopy is virtually non-existent in lower income areas. Look at the entirety of the inner southwest valley area - Maryvale etc, these neighborhoods are old enough to have massive canopy but clearly the cost to water such large trees without any rain is extremely high and thus the trees do not exist. Contrast that with North-Central Phoenix with Central Ave as the spine; large, lush lots with large high income households that, despite their income allowing for the higher water consumption necessary to sustain large trees - these households have the irony of access to CHEAP, deep watering with SRP flood irrigation.
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