Taking Place

On Taking Place In The Trees, the new woody plants blog, I’m currently reporting on a great workshop given last week at Elm Bank and sponsored by the Massachusetts Arborists Association. Four top-notch arborists presented demonstrations and talks on tree root issues and some really innovative strategies for dealing with them. Of the hundred or so attendees, I believe that perhaps two (including me) were landscape architects. Tom Wirth was also there, and soaking up the information like a sponge; I’m sure he’ll use it on behalf of his clients’ landscapes, as will I.

Here’s the thing: I know that many LAs were invited to this event — I spread the word, as did several of the arborists there, including Carl Cathcart, who seems to know everyone and who is an active promoter of the wealth of plant-related knowledge that originates here in Massachusetts.

But why such a low LA turnout? It was a relatively low-cost event, and from what I’ve heard of local firms in this economy, the boards all over town aren’t loaded with projects. Was lack of time an issue for everyone? Do landscape architects have no interest in the largest living elements they use in design? Was there not enough promotion? Have people heard at all about what great work is being pioneered here? If you have thoughts about this issue, please write your comments in below — I’m baffled at the absence of representatives from the landscape architectural profession at these events.

A six-inch caliper Elm with a fourteen-foot diameter root mass, being moved bare-root. How does this thing fit inside a standard ANLA root ball? You have to cut off all but 60 inches of the roots to do so. Bare-root, you get to keep all this root mass and the growing potential it represents. Photo taken at the MAA workshop on September 10, 2009.