Tree Preservation on Active Construction Sites: What to Get Right Before Ground Breaks

I've been on many Tree Preservation projects with the best intentions, but everything falls apart at the eleventh hour, and sometimes long before. It felt as if the tree preservation was approved with the main intention being the ceremonial check mark on a list showing something was accomplished. No real forethought, planning, or resolve behind the action.

The mulch is laid beneath the shade of the canopy, the fences go up to dissuade any equipment operators looking for respite from the sun, and the foreman is briefed on the importance of staying away from "my tree", as all trees under our protection are known. We walk away feeling accomplished and pat ourselves on the back for successfully saving another tree, because, obviously once the fence goes up no one would dare cross the threshold, there's a fence! Then sometime down the road you get the inevitable call from the foreman that they need to remove half the fence under the large Oak, but it's fine because it's just one side. They have to trench a few feet from the trunk for the gas line, but hey, they will put the fence back up when they are done cutting all the roots. For the rest of the project, the tree protections shifts from being preventative, to reactionary. Why are the sidewalks being placed here, not another few feet to the side? Why wasn't the grade change addressed earlier around the tree? What in the world is your landscaper doing taking down the fence with a skid steer under the tree?

Fence down and Heavy Equipment under Tree Canopy

The fix isn't complicated, it's just inconvenient when people don't want to slow down the planning process anymore than it already is. A true tree preservation plan needs to start on the drawing board at the start of the project planning, not a week before the groundbreaking with a haphazard call to the local arborist asking for a fence for a tree protection zone. There are too many questions that need to be asked, answered, and mitigated well before the first shovel hits the ground. Should all the trees even be saved? How many of them are too stressed to have a good chance of survival post construction? Do we need permits? What kind of permits? These are questions that can be answered with a tree inventory that needs to be done, arguably before any plans are made. This allows the planners to properly know their confines and work around them, rather than the arborist trying to work around the plans and operating more of a tree triage after the fences have been taken down.

Proper planning on the front end can save time, money, and heartache on the back end. It doesn't do anyone any good to spend time and resources saving a mature Oak, the plan is to cut the roots halfway through the project. The conversations need to be had with all vested parties so everyone is on the same page with no surprises. The foremen need to know about the tree protection zones and have the expectations of working around them and the potential consequences if they don't. The landscapers need to know they will not be permitted to use heavy equipment for soil grading inside the tree protection zones, and yes, the engineers need to know not to cut a trench in "my roots". The loss of a 60 year old Oak that the client had dreams of swinging their children under, is not just a financial loss, its an emotional one. We only get one shot at doing this right for the clients, lets make sure we start on the right foot.