City forester prescribes controversial spray program to help ailing trees

SALT LAKE CITY — Trees are in trouble in Salt Lake City.

"I wouldn't go so far as to say they're dying," said city forester Bill Rutherford, "but they're all kind of gasping for breath."

Rutherford and Mayor Ralph Becker have proposed a controversial spraying program to save the trees. The fungicide and insecticide treatments would begin when leaves emerge this spring and would cost about $360,000.

The problem

Especially hard-hit by beetles and fungus are three of the city's most popular and beautiful species: honey locusts, sycamores and London plane trees. They provide shade and aesthetic value in some of Salt Lake City's most prestigious areas, including the Yalecrest neighborhood and The Avenues.

The trees have been punished by too little water in recent drought years. Homeowners have become more conservative with their watering practices and are sometimes too stingy with extra water for trees, according to Rutherford.

The last two years played a cruel trick by providing weather that was too wet. The unusually cool, wet springs in 2010 and 2011 opened the door to fungus infections.

"They've had a couple of real hard seasons with insects and diseases," Rutherford said.

According to some experts, a big part of the problem is that when the trees were planted generations ago, species were chosen that are not particularly well suited to the Salt lake Valley climate.

Horticulturist Cathy Devitt said people who moved to Utah tended to choose trees they were familiar with from other places.

"Their life span is shortened," she said, "because they haven't been in a healthy climate for themselves. Just like it would be for human beings that weren't living a healthy lifestyle."

The proposed plan

Rutherford thinks a bigger problem is lack of diversity in a given neighborhood. "They've served our citizens and our communities very well for years and years," Rutherford said. "So I wouldn't say it's the wrong tree. If I had it to do over again, and we were 100 years ago, I probably wouldn't plant the same, tree after tree, a whole neighborhood of the same thing at the same time."

He's proposed a sequence of three spraying applications when leaves begin to emerge in the spring. Decisions have not been made yet about specific chemicals and application methods. It's possible spraying could be avoided if the chemicals are injected into each tree or poured around the trunk. Those alternatives would raise the cost but might be more effective at stopping the process of decay.

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"If we don't do that intervention," Rutherford said, "I think the process will continue to accelerate to the point where some of these trees will require major alteration to their structure and possibly their removal if they continue to decline."

Devitt says a better idea would be to remove ailing trees now and replace them with more appropriate species such as Russian olives, maples and native alders. "I think the spraying program is just going to be a band-aid in the big picture," she said. "If we're going to look at this as a long-term program, I don't think spraying is the answer."

But Rutherford believes such an approach would destroy too many trees because so many are in trouble right now.

"I'd rather throw them a life ring than preemptively start taking trees down," Rutherford said. "I'd rather help them along rather than cut them down."

While that debate goes on, Rutherford said homeowners can help the trees right now by getting out the garden hose and giving them some extra water, an unusual idea in wintertime. "We've had such a mild dry winter, these trees that are already showing signs of stress and have seen decline really could benefit from some winter watering," Rutherford said.

Through its website, Salt Lake City is conducting on online poll giving citizens a chance to help decide what ought to be done about the trees. You can participate by CLICKING HERE.

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