Politics & Government

19 Trees Replaced Downtown

Trees may appear healthy but are over due for replacement

Downtown Kent got another facelift this week, but this one was of the topiary nature.

The city replaced 19 trees in the downtown area. The work started Tuesday and is expected to finish today.

Kent Arborist Gerald Shanley said the trees may have appeared healthy, but many were in fact quite unhealthy or over due for replacement.

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"They're not healthy," Shanley said. "Even though they're green and have flowers they're not healthy."

Shanley said he waited as long as possible — until the point when the trees would start dropping large limbs — before removing the trees. Many of the pear and red maple trees being replaced were planted about 30 years ago. That's a time period when downtown trees in any urban area are due for replacement, he said.

Find out what's happening in Kentwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Aside from the time span, Shanley said many of the trees' roots were starting to buckle sidewalks and were on the verge of interrupting electric and other buried utility lines.

The city contracted with to replace the old trees with two new species for downtown: accolade elm and village green zelkova.

The new trees are non-flowering trees, unlike the pear trees, but they will leaf this year, Shanley said.

"These are tough trees and they have a nice canopy on them," he said.


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