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<br />Davey Resource Group, Inc. <br />Tree Inventory Analysis & Maintenance Strategy <br />● Street tree planting is currently sufficient to maintain the <br />recommended age distribution. However, sustained planting <br />efforts over time will be necessary to retain this age distribution. <br />● Routine, proactive maintenance, such as young tree training and <br />routine pruning, may help improve tree condition, particularly <br />among maturing and mature trees. <br />Tree Benefits <br />● Large-stature, deciduous trees tend to provide the greatest <br />benefits. The city of Orono should plan to plant these types of trees <br />wherever possible to increase the benefits provided by the public <br />trees. This may require enlarging existing tree planting spaces or <br />creating large new tree planting spaces to accommodate large <br />street trees. It also should include preserving existing large-stature <br />trees and providing proactive care to young public trees to ensure <br />they achieve mature status in the future. <br />● The protection of existing park trees should be a priority, and <br />succession planning to replace park trees and increase tree cover <br />in parks will have a large positive impact on tree benefits in Orono <br />in the future. <br />● Oak were often among the largest contributors to tree benefits and <br />are not currently overabundant in Orono. Planting oak will help to <br />increase the benefits provided by public trees. <br />● The public trees in Orono account for only a fraction of the total <br />benefits provided by the City’s trees, indicating that many of the <br />trees which provide benefits to Orono are located on private <br />property. The City of Orono should consider methods to preserve <br />existing trees and promote new tree planting on private property <br />throughout the city to increase tree benefits. <br />Priority Maintenance <br />● Trees with Dead or Poor condition ratings recommended for <br />removal should be removed as soon as reasonably possible and <br />prioritized based on their condition rating and size class. Tree <br />removal is recommended when pruning will not correct the tree’s <br />defects, will not eliminate the risks caused by defects, or when <br />pruning would be cost-prohibitive. <br />Routine Pruning Cycle <br />● Orono should aim to prune 1/5 of its public trees each year during <br />a five-year routine pruning cycle. A five-year cycle would see <br />around 482 street trees and around 290 park trees assessed and <br />pruned, if needed, each year. <br />● Young trees (1-6”) which grow out of the young tree training cycle <br />(see next section) should also be included in the routine pruning <br />cycle. <br />● The number of trees to be assessed and routinely pruned each year <br />will vary depending on the number of trees which are planted and <br />the number of trees which are removed in future years. <br />● Not every tree in the routine pruning cycle will need to be pruned <br />each cycle – thus, the actual cost to maintain a routine pruning <br />cycle will likely be lower than projected in the budget table at the <br />end of this section (Table 7). <br /> <br />258