Heard a city forester say they're planting more oaks now because of a new pest forecast

Tbh, I was grabbing coffee next to a couple arborists from the Portland parks department, and one mentioned they're shifting 40% of their street tree planting to Oregon white oaks this season. He said the latest models show the emerald ash borer is going to hit our region way harder than they thought in the next 5 years. Honestly, it got me thinking about how much our own planting plans should be based on future pest maps, not just what's available. Has anyone else started changing their species selection because of something like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

derek_burns8712d ago

But what about the soil under all these new oaks? They need specific conditions to really thrive. If we just swap ash for oak in the same compacted tree pits, are we setting them up to fail anyway? Maybe the real shift needs to be in how we prep the ground, not just the species we pick.

jade_hernandez12d ago

Saw a city crew in Chicago last fall planting a red oak in a hole barely bigger than the root ball. They just backfilled with the same hard clay they dug out. That tree is going to struggle for years. You can't just drop a demanding species like oak into a bad site. We need to mandate bigger pits with real soil amendments, or we're just wasting money on slow death.