Hurry and see this before it disappears! This is a photo of some great landscape phenomenon occurring right now in Phillips Ranch.
What is happening is the Poplars in the park have seeded the surrounding area and saplings are beginning to come out of the ground. They are all over the place!
Unfortunately on my way to school today I saw a maintenance guy with a weed whacker hacking away at these saplings.
This phenomenon is a bit of what happens in Landscape Urbanism. Plants are set in and a growth in density naturally occurs. Unfortunately our infrastructure is built around the control and stasis of parks rather than encouraging growth and development.
I hope that this occurs again next year and some of the saplings are left to grow into trees. Maybe it'd be a good idea to bring this to the city council and see what they think about letting it grow. I think the problem with maintenance like this is that there is this constant need to control nature. We should let these poplars grow and see what the earth systems engineer on its own.
There are a lot of benefits for this. For example Poplars don't require as much water as turf and so when a Poplar takes over the space of the turf less water is required. When trees get old a new tree will need to take place, there are quite a few places where some poplars were obviously cut down for one reason or another. Since the poplars are columnar trees they'll provide enough shade for people and water conservation but not too much to choke out the sun, so more won't hurt. Not to mention the carbon intake and the provision of wildlife to the surrounding area (which should be obvious).
It may be too late for people to see what was happening but it was pretty cool while it lasted. Hopefully we'll see it again next year and maybe even the city will choose to save funds on maintenance and let them grow. (one can only dream)
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
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5 comments:
I would love to see more volunteer trees be allowed to grow. Chinese elm, ash, palm, pepper, and oak are some of the species I've seen sprouting in odd places in Pomona. Some chinese elm were allowed to grow tall in the median by the 71 through Westmont, but usually volunteer trees get whacked. boo, weed whackers.
Volunteer trees send their roots deeper and more securely into the ground than potted trees. It would be sensible for city gardeners to selectively nurture seedling trees for landscaping infill.
pet peeve: Why is it that weed whacking gardeners will not allow the bougainvelia and lantana to bloom on White Ave. by the Fairplex? Since it was planted three years ago, the flowers have been cut off a week before the fair opens each year. In fact, the flowers are kept removed year round. They would look beautiful if they flowered. I don't understand why we call Whack, Mow, and Blow crews 'gardeners'. ok, rant over.
Poplars become giant torches in fires...
i don't even know what to say to that... Do you think we should not have oaks and california black walnuts either in southern california? instead succulents only and turf everywhere? I'm not sure what you're getting at anonymous.
why do i get the feeling that anon. (torch tree comment) is someone i know?
Thanks for bringing this up. I'll try to get some of them and replant in my barren yard. I wonder how many years it will take to grow tall :-)
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