The CBC Podcast ‘Good Question Montreal’ discusses about urban trees this week and the complex factors surrounding why we cut and plant trees, entitled: Why do we plant big trees under power lines?

Why are trees being cut along the Île-aux-Tourtes bridge construction? What are the piles of wood being used for? Does planting a new tree compensate for losing an old one? These questions and more are examined in the first part of the podcast where Alain contributes his opinions on the potential benefit/issue trade-offs when planting new trees after we’ve cut down old one in cities. “The good thing about trees is that they live long. The bad thing about trees is that they live long.”  He points out that new trees do compensate for lost services, but that this replenishment takes time. And more importantly than simply planting more trees, are the decisions surrounding HOW and WHERE we plant them. 

This leads into the second topic of the podcast: Why do we plant big trees under power lines? How can we better maintain and protect our older trees? What do we know about urban trees and why they die? The host guides the listener through some of the very important and prevalent issues that decision makers face when trying to plant trees and what could be done to overcome some of them. Alain weighs in again on the need to maintain and protect older trees, and the need to learn more about them in order to do so effectively. He points out that we have zero data to back up some of our main assumptions which lead to guiding principles for tree care. Moreover, “1000s of trees are removed every year but we basically forget why we removed them”; a knowledge gap that the Urban Forest Research Chair’s register for felled trees hopes to help shed some light on. He also discusses the Chair’s project to use moveable trees in areas where planting permanent ones is more logistically challenging.

You can listen to the entire podcast at the link below.