Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY -- Tree losses are mounting in Salt Lake City, spiking to unprecedented numbers. It seems that in the race to save water, too many folks are neglecting their trees.
Fly over Salt Lake City, as we did in Chopper Five, and you see a green canopy, providing shade, making the community livable. But down below, there are signs of trouble.
On 300 East and 700 South, city crews dismantled a silver maple. It's nearly 60 feet tall and probably 40 years old.
"It's been suffering from moisture stress for probably seven or eight years," explained City Forester Bill Rutherford.
Arborist Rick Nelson said, "As people are cutting back on their watering, I think we're losing a lot of trees because of that."
Under the silver maple, the grass looks like it's struggling, clearly not getting enough water.
In the '90s, the city typically removed about 450 dying or structurally-unsafe trees a year. In the last decade, those numbers have jumped to nearly 800, an increase of 330 a year, or almost 60 percent.
Crews have been swamped.
"Pretty much, at least for the last month, we've been doing it nonstop all day," Nelson said.
Water conservation is partly to blame. As residents reduce water use or replace turf with water-wise plants, they're not watering trees enough, especially in park strips.
Compounding things: drought and global warming. Average temperatures in the Southwest rose 1.5 degrees in the last four decades and are projected to rise even more sharply, putting more old-timers, like the silver maple on 700 South, at risk.
E-mail: jdaley@ksl.com
