By Ed Jones
The trees in the St. Helens Rd. median through Linnton are Hawthorns that were planted more than 20 years ago. They have not thrived and our goal should be to replace all of them over the next 5 or so years. As a first phase in the project we should replace the missing eight trees, four in median #1 (trees one, seven, eight and nine) one in median #3 (tree 23), and all three in median #4 (trees thirty-one, thirty-two and thirty-three).
ODOT (Oregon Department of Transportation) controls the medians. Urban Forestry, the city’s tree office, has no authority over the project. ODOT wants us to use the city’s tree list, which we will, and we want to keep the city people in the loop and comply with their rules whenever possible. But we don’t have to follow their rules or have any city permits or pay any city fees.
Being in the median is not safe. The lost trees prove that. We will need safety equipment and expert help. We have an estimate (roughly $1,500 a day) from D&H Flagging, and they, or someone like them, with flaggers and lots of signs and cones, are what we need to hire to keep our people safe.
How much time “in the street” the work will take depends on how much beyond removing a stump and planting a new tree we intend to do. Knowledgeable people are confident we can plant eight trees in a day, but depending on how much site prep we want to do we may want to spread site preparation and planting over two days.
If there are other improvements we want to do in the medians (their current status would be on the ugly side of utilitarian) this will be a rare chance to do them in safety. For example, the medians have large square concrete “stones” surrounding the trees which will have to be removed for replanting. Are we going to put them back, or do something better?
If you are interested in getting involved in this project, email Ed Jones at edward97231@gmail.com.