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INDUSTRY NEWS

Vineland Research and Innovation Cen-tre (Vineland) is continuing the task to develop guidelines to sustain healthy trees along highways.

Dr. Darby McGrath, Research Scien-tist, Nursery and Landscape, at Vineland,

Highway trees project a continuation of 401 planting

says “In preliminary results from the first planting season, we found not all trees classified as urban-tolerant are suitable for planting in unmaintained sites.” She points out that nursery stock size is also an important consideration for transplant

survival, particularly in areas where weed competition is high and moisture content is variable. “The team also discovered shrubs provide important benefits to trees in roadside ecosystems because they are able to acclimate to challenging environ-ments and help surrounding trees adapt to harsh site conditions.”

Vineland has designed two experi-mental test planting sites, one at its Vine-land campus and the other at Fifty Rd. on the northbound side of the QEW in Niagara.

Back in 2010, Landscape Ontario, Vineland and the Ministry of Transporta-tion planted 7,000 trees at the intersec-tions of the 401 and 427, near Pearson Airport, and 401 and Allen Expressway at Yorkdale Mall. Trees were supplied by Vineland, Braun Nurseries, Willowbrook Nurseries and Sheridan Nurseries.

Dr. McGrath says her team will be accessing those sites this fall to check on the survival of the trees planted at the Toronto sites. She says since those sites were planted, the research team has found there are a number of factors that determine the success of trees in difficult environments along highways.

“There are many types of trees avail-able for planting in urban environments, however, planting near multi-lane high-ways where follow-up care for trees is limited, means that trees need to be robust to overcome the transplant and establishment periods,” says Dr. McGrath.

At each of the Niagara sites, eight dif-ferent tree species, including Autumn Blaze Freeman maple, Kentucky cof-feetree, Cully river birch, Triumph elm, Glenleven linden, Common hackberry, trembling aspen and silver maple have been planted. Three types of shrubs have also been planted at the sites. These include grey dogwood, nannyberry and common ninebark.

The team selected the trees from the urban-tolerant trees project team, led by Thelma Kessel of Lacewing Horticul-ture, which included Sean Fox, assistant manager, University of Guelph Arbore-tum; Jennifer Llewellyn, OMAFRA nurs-ery crops specialist; and Dr. Glen Lumis, professor emeritus, University of Guelph. The list of trees from that project may be found at gfl.me/h2Fq.

“Vineland will continue to monitor the sites for tree survival and growth over the next two seasons. The research will also be expanded next year to exam-ine the benefits of mixed plantings for improving plant growth, water and nutri-ent retention. The team will at the same

Dr. Darby McGrath, Vineland’s Research Scientist, Nursery and Landscape, is joined by her assistants with the highway trees project, Erin Agro, Research Technician, Horticultural Production Systems, and Jason Henry, Research Technician, Nursery and Landscape.

24 LANDSCAPE ONTARIO NOVEMBER 2015

INDUSTRY NEWS

time investigate whether mixed plantings can offer trees buffering from root shad-ing, wind and salt spray damage,” says Dr. McGrath.

The Vineland team expects to rewrite specs for trees planted along busy high-ways. Those specs will be ongoing until the funding ends in 2018. Dr. McGrath expects that the study and process to change provincial and municipal plant-ing specs will carry on past 2018. The challenges in the study are not just hor-

ticulture challenges,” says Dr. McGrath. There is work to do with changing how governments deal with soil and planting requirements.

This research project is part of Vine-land’s Greening the Canadian Land-scape. The program has expanded across Canada, and includes a number of partners. Several large Canadian cities are part of that partnership, along with a number of provincial governments.

This project was funded in part

After five years, Canada’s National Tree Day continues to serve as an opportunity to appreciate the great benefits that trees provide.

Every year the celebration takes place on Sept. 23.“Growing in size every year, National Tree Day helps

remind Canadians of the importance of trees,” said Michael Rosen, President of Tree Canada, which coordinates the

Ontario celebrates National Tree Dayprogram. “They beautify our communities, naturally cool our cities in the summer, and combat climate change by absorb-ing carbon dioxide emissions and producing oxygen, as well as help to improve human health.”

Many schools, municipalities, institutions and corpora-tions marked this year’s event. For more information, go to nationaltreeday.ca.

through Growing Forward 2 (GF2), a federal-provincial-territorial initiative. The Agricultural Adaptation Council assists in the delivery of GF2 in Ontario.

Dr. McGrath says municipalities inter-ested in the project may contact her at 905-562-0320, ext. 766, or darby.mcgrath@vinelandresearch.com.

GIANT PUMPKIN PROMOTES COMPOST USEA giant pumpkin weighing 1,078 lbs. is the winning entry in this year’s Annual Pumpkin Growing Contest organized by The Compost Council of Canada.

Gerry Cavanaugh of Ennismore grew his golden beauty, having prepared his soil with compost and with the hope of

Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto celebrated National Tree Day by planting trees throughout the property.