The city is marking Arbor Day and encouraging residents to plant trees, like these along tree-lines Michigan Avenue in LaPorte. Staff photo by Amanda Haverstick
La PORTE — La Porte is marking Arbor Day by encouraging residents to plant trees and help diversify the city’s tree species.
La Porte Mayor Tom Dermody proclaimed April 30 as Arbor Day in the city of La Porte during last week’s Board of Public Works and Safety meeting.
“It reinforces our commitment to a healthy canopy and it’s a really good opportunity for us to educate the community,” La Porte sustainability engineer Sarah Nimetz said of Arbor Day.
Nimetz said the city’s Arbor Day proclamation is one of the key components to La Porte again being named a Tree City.
“The city of La Porte was a Tree City for a long period of time, but it’s an ongoing program so we have to continually maintain and keep up our status, and this is one of the ways that we’re doing that,” Nimetz said.
The components of becoming a Tree City, Nimetz said, are the city’s tree ordinance, the La Porte Tree Commission and the Urban Forestry Program.
“So, this is the last of that criteria. At the end of the year, we’ll put all that together and send it in and become a Tree City again.”
As part of marking Arbor Day, the Tree Commission will hold its annual Tree Giveaway on Saturday at 8 a.m. at Kesling Park.
Species available include Shumard oak, Kentucky coffee tree, tulip tree, American plum and redbud.
“Those trees that we’re giving away can be planted anywhere. Anybody can have them,” Nimetz said. “We’re not restricting people from planting them in or out of city limits. It’ll benefit everybody.”
Dermody asked Nimetz to address why La Porte, which had been called the Maple City for years, is moving toward a more diverse tree population.
“There are a lot of reasons to not plant only one species,” Nimetz said. “Maples are wonderful trees. They grow really fast, so people like to have them as street trees.”
However, Nimetz said maples disrupt infrastructure.
“Their root systems interfere with sidewalks and roads. They die and drop limbs. With a maple, sometimes it will drop limbs very quickly and you have to address it very quickly.
“We’re experiencing that now where we had a lot of maples planted at once a long time ago and they’re reaching the end of that useful life,” she said.
Nimetz said they are mitigating the issues with maples by diversifying species.
“Additionally, if a species-specific pest were to come through, like the emerald ash borer or Dutch elm disease, we’re not risking losing our entire canopy ... We’re trying to have a good species variety in our street trees and in people’s yards,” Nimetz said.
They are also trying to introduce more native species rather than horticultural varieties.
“They do better and require less maintenance, and they have stronger root systems that help with erosion,” Nimetz said.
She also addressed the white flowering Callery pear trees that line La Porte’s downtown streets, but are regarded as an invasive species.
“They were really popular in the late ’80s and early ’90s as street trees. They grow very fast, they’re beautiful and they don’t smell fantastic, so if you’re downwind from them and you catch a whiff, it’s not the most pleasant smell,” Nimetz said.
“We’ve learned since then – and when we know better, we try to do better – that these specific species of trees overtake natural areas very quickly.”
The seeds from Callery pear escape quickly, as birds will spread the seeds in their droppings. The trees are also stubborn and hard to kill.
“We can cut it down, but it will shoot very quickly from the stump, which is frustrating. They’re not good trees. It’s a frustrating problem because every city is facing that,” Nimetz said.
The trees grow well, but they are not structurally sound and prone to failing, said Nimetz
“In our downtown we have a ton of them, which is beautiful as you’re looking down the street, but they’re not as easy to remove because they’re in these tree pits that have electricity running through them.”
Nimetz said they plan to strategically remove and replace the pear trees.
“We just have to be strategic. We don’t want to clear cut a bunch of trees because trees still have benefits. We’re working on different ways to maybe block by block address them,” Nimetz said.
Good species to supplant the pears, Nimetz said, would be flowering dogwoods, redbuds or various crab apples.
“What’s most important when you’re selecting an alternate species is where you’re putting it. Be cognizant of power lines and soil type, and the amount of water and maintenance you’re willing to give it,” she said.
“It’s good that we’re challenging the way we’ve always done things and that includes the downtown flowers as well – looking at natives versus annuals,” Dermody added.
“We’re evaluating everything we’ve done in the past and may be looking at a new way to do things.”
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