Planting tall in the Prairies

My Melanie Jacob
Journal Staff Writer
[email protected]


Urban forestry is an ongoing effort and yet another category to be judged in this year's Communities in Bloom (CIB) contest.


"We always have the urban forestry policy where we have to maintain and encourage trees," said Darrell Lessmeister, director of community and leisure services for the City of Humboldt. "We also have the tree registry that documents how many there are and where they're located."


Last year, the city was awarded four out of five blooms in this category. It was recommended that they continue developing the details of the tree registry as well as monitoring those already planted in the Fifth Avenue railside park. It was also suggested that the city use mulch around the base of the trees to avoid basal damage.


"Before, we didn't really have a set plan, it was more random placement of trees," said Janice Ruedig, a member of the CIB committee. "Now we have a set plan for which areas are going to be reforested. It's more of a planned approach to the trees, proactive as opposed to reactive."


Another big improvement regarding this category is the city's new partnership with the Business Improvement District (BID). That, along with the planting of trees along Main Street, will be pointed out in the CIB package for the judges.


"We keep adding trees every year. We keep track and we do an inventory and each year we make sure we're the ones maintaining our trees," said Lessmeister. "We have a qualified individual take a look, do an assessment if it looks old, prune it to be successful, or take it out if it's a danger or has died."


According to Lessmeister, one of the biggest challenges with maintaining trees in Humboldt is lack of resources. The city can plant as many trees as it wants, but they have to also make sure they have the resources to take care of them and keep them alive.


Aside from that, there's also the human element to watch out for.


"We've lost some trees through vandalism," said Lessmeister. "It takes a lot to get them going, but if they're small sometimes people break them off. You don't see that a lot, but because it takes so many years for them to grow, it can be frustrating. We'd hope that people wouldn't do that."


With the city's proactive approach, maintaining a healthy succession of trees should get easier as they'll be under-planting old trees.


"By the time we have to take these old ones down, these young ones will be developed," said Ruedig.