Looking Up - The Trees of Downtown Salmon Arm

Recently we walked with friends from Vancouver and showed them some of the things we enjoy about our downtown. My eyes were constantly caught by the colours of blooming flowers, brightly painted buildings, and downtown art.

Flower bed at Marine Park

Amazing hydrangeas in front of City Hall and the Law Courts

Flower garden and reflecting pool in front of City Hall

The bright colours of this building particularly intrigued our friends. The photograph is from earlier in the year.

Looking north down Shuswap Street

The wonderful colours invited our eyes to enjoy their richness, and the fragrance of flowers added to the sensory experience.

Occasionally, as in the picture below, my eyes wandered past the flowers, and looked up, to take in the many trees growing downtown.

Hudson Street

The Downtown has a wonderful array of trees along its streets, in various private parking lots, and tucked around buildings. There are many reasons to appreciate these trees - the shade they provide, the ways they soften the lines of buildings, the rustles of leaves, and the attraction they provide to birds.

There are challenges to growing trees in paved areas, and some of the trees in the core area are struggling, especially at this time of year, when heat and dry weather can stress trees and make them vulnerable to disease and pests.

Brown leaves and bare branches show a story unfolding for many of downtown's trees.

A stressed tree in the Ross Street parking lot has leaves turning brown

Signs of a struggling tree - brown leaves, bare branches

Alexander Street

The trees which line the downtown streets have their roots below pavement - asphalt roads and concrete sidewalks. I have often wondered how they get enough water, and how their roots avoid getting compacted by the pressure of vehicles driving over the soil.

While various maples seem to be struggling, conifers seem to be in better shape.

The two conifers on the right of the picture appear to be healthier than the deciduous tree on the left.

The corner of Shuswap St. and Lakeshore Dr.

Lakeshore Dr.

South side of the highway, near the Fire Hall

These images are just a few of the many trees I see, in the downtown and elsewhere, which are showing signs of stress.

What to do?

Soil Cells

One of the things that the City has been doing since 2015 is to gradually plant new trees which are going into paved areas in what are called "soil cells". These are proprietary technology; there are a few different types available. Many of the older downtown trees were planted in barrels, surrounded by gravel. Soil cells are improved technology, can provide the trees with better growing conditions, and can tolerate the weight of vehicles.

Soil cells are very expensive though; the cost of an individual planted tree in a soil cell can be upwards of $5,000.

These trees on the east side of 3rd street, near Centenoka Mall, were recently planted in soil cells.

Plant diversity

When dead trees are replaced, we need to ensure a variety of trees along a street. With the stress of changing climate, diversity will give at least a chance that some trees may survive drought and insect pests.

This street, near Peter Jannink Park, has at least two varieties of trees planted along it.

This street, which is near Okanagan College, has the same species planted down its length. If an insect pest hits one tree, they could all be vulnerable. It makes sense to replicate nature and plant a variety of species in our urban areas.

Piccadilly Mall parking lot is graced with some fine trees. Many of them are the same variety however.

In 2015 the City contracted CropHealth Advising and Research to do a report on the downtown street trees. This report, which is not publicly available, documented each tree species, its age, diameter at breast height (DBH), condition and also gave pruning recommendations.

Some of the main species of downtown trees are

Acer Rubrum - Red Maple

Fraxinus - Ash

Platanus - London Plane

Tilla Cordata - Littleleaf Linden

Gleditsia - Honey Locust

I do not know how tolerant these landscape tree species will be to the fluctuations and extremes that are likely to occur with a changing climate.

Plant native

Native trees and shrubs are likely to be more resilient than imported landscape species to extremes of temperature and moisture. There are many resources that list native garden plants for different areas in B.C. - flowers, shrubs, and grasses - but much less material available for planting native trees. Here is one resource from On the Living Edge, Your Handbook for Waterfront Living, a book for which I was prime author. Although now over a decade old, much of the content is still relevant and useful: https://www.bcnature.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Appendix2.pdf

Remnant native vegetation along the Turner Creek trail

Conifer on Marine Park Drive

Healthy conifers at Fletcher Park. The tree on the right is a Larch.

Appreciate conifers.

The dominant native species in our area are Douglas fir on drier slopes, and Western Red cedar in moist gullies and on north facing slopes. However, with increasing variability of summer precipitation, cedars may well become a species that cannot survive in this area.

Cedars struggle in much of Salmon Arm

The north-facing slope of Pileated Woods Park helps keep the area moist for healthy cedars. In the future, they may only survive where there are conditions such as these.

Compared to cedars, Douglas firs are hardy and should be able to tolerate more stressful conditions.

The City of Kamloops has been promoting tree planting, and lists Douglas firs as one of the species which has low moisture requirements, compared to many landscape trees. 
https://www.kamloops.ca/sites/default/files/sus-_plant_selection.pdf

I would like to see more firs planted around town.

A magnificent fir just outside downtown

This conifer fits in with the plantings of the area and provides shade for the sitting area.

Variety of trees, curved paths, benches .. who would have ever thought this beautiful spot is beside a mall parking lot?

One of the many beautiful conifers at Piccadilly Mall

A Larch tree in Marine Park. Although Larches are not listed as having low moisture requirements, they seem to do well in the Salmon Arm area.

Two other native tree species which are tolerant of low water are Ponderosa Pine and Rocky Mountain Juniper.

A variety of trees adds greatly to our enjoyment of our urban streets. Let's ensure that they are here for the long term by planting wisely and choosing species that will survive our changing climate.