on the subject of trees, for any modest sized tree needing a boost, I strongly recommend the A.M. Leonard water bags...they easily zip around tree trunks, they hold a lot (20 gallons?) of water, and it very slowly trickles out the bottom over time...they have allowed our two year old trees to flourish.
Trees? I live in an arboretum! From our town charter: The Town purchased land that was threatened by excessive development and established the Town as an Arboretum, including approval of a citizens advisory committee to initiate the Arboretum. The Arboretum shall consist of all trees, shrubs, woody plants, and other herbaceous material planted or maintained by the Town on any and all public land owned by the Town, including but not limited to such material in parks, playgrounds, rights-of-way, and lands leased by the Town to others, together with such property (whether or not owned by the Town) for which the Town may from time to time have maintenance responsibility.
Lots of fun trees!
-jk
I am sure this was not a unique situation: During the 1990s I lived in Bethesda inside the Capital Beltway. There was vacant farmland (imagine!!) across from my house, which was then turned into a development of large and reasonably attractive homes (I hate to use the word "McMansions," but there you have it). There were trees on the development property, and each was given a price tag by Montgomery County ($10,000 for a large white oak, for example). If the tree died for any reason, the developer had to pay and the County would use the funds to replace the tree.
Sage Grouse
---------------------------------------
'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
MoCo has regs for removing - and replacing - "big trees". But what we have is really different. Here's the map of all our town trees. We seem to take it seriously!
-jk