City of Red Deer parks workers will labour until 2021 to replace the hundreds of trees knocked down in just an hour of high winds in 2017.
“It’s a long process” that involves many stump removals, as well as working in the regular tree replantings that have to be done every year, said Dave Matthews, parks planning and technical services supervisor for the city.
Parks workers were hoping to get 500 to 600 new trees into the ground this summer, but stump removals slowed the process. He estimates only 350 to 400 trees were replanted — but those were in high visibility locations: on 39th Avenue, Gaetz Avenue, Ross Street, Taylor Drive, 67th Street and 39th Street.
The work was done largely using the city’s regular tree-planting budget, although an extra $100,000 was found from allocations for work that did not get done in previous years, said Matthews.
“For a few years, we were losing more trees than we were gaining back,” he said — which is why the city plans to embark on a replanting effort in neighbourhoods next, including Woodlea, Waskasoo, Rosedale, Oriole Park and Parkvale.
Challenges are expected when replanting in older neighbourhoods, such as plotting out the water and electrical lines. “It will take more time and expense, as new trees also need to be watered in for the first few years,” said Matthews.
Although there were few violent storms this summer, Matthews said the drought was hard on some trees: “We had to remove some spruce and poplar” that dried out and were past saving.
Arbourists are also dealing with the usual blights — including the black knot fungus, which mostly affects flowering plum, cherry, apricot and almond trees.
It’s highly contagious and can spread to other trees if the diseased branches aren’t immediately cut off, placed in a plastic bag and landfilled.
Matthews said there are no plans to replace the trees damaged in the Kerry Wood Nature Centre or other natural areas where Mother Nature can do this work.
lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com
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