Andrew The Arborist

18/12/2025

Street trees can offer us many benefits, but can also cause issues when not properly sited. One of the most common issues is sidewalk damage caused by expanding roots and trunks. Oftentimes, it is then the responsibility of the homeowner to pay for sidewalk repairs, which can be a big financial burden.

Inadequate root space is the most common cause of sidewalk damage from trees. This is typically because the street tree pits, tree lawns, or hellstrips are not large enough or because too large of a species was chosen for the site.

To prevent or greatly reduce sidewalk damage in the future, make sure to plant large-maturing trees only where there is ample space (6-8’ x 6-8’ at least), and stick to smaller-maturing species where space is limited. Before planting, ensure that the soil conditions are well suited for root growth by decompacting and enriching the soil when necessary.

01/12/2025

My non-profit Community Canopy Project is working to replant 10 acres of streamside mowed turf grass in my area with native trees and shrubs! Here’s how things are wrapping up at this 1.1 acre site. We planted 194 trees and shrubs including oaks, hickories, persimmons, pawpaws, hackberries, serviceberries, and more. We removed some invasive plants, and we will sow some native wildflower seed mixes throughout the area this winter.

This is part of a grant that we were awarded from the state’s Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources. In 2025, we planted about 5.5 of our required 10 acres, so we’re hoping to plant the rest next year! We’d love for you to join us if you’re in the area. You can sign up for our email newsletter on our website to keep up to date on upcoming volunteer events. You can also support our work by donating! Thank you! - https://communitycanopyproject.org/

25/11/2025

I wrote briefly about 7 ways you can make positive ecological and environmental changes in your community! Check it out on the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's website:

Learn simple native plant and eco-friendly actions to create a more sustainable community and support local wildlife at home.

20/11/2025

Through my nonprofit (Community Canopy Project) and my local environmental advisory board, I helped to organize a native tree giveaway for residents of my hometown. Funds for the giveaway came from developers who did not replant the required amount of trees after clearing woods for development.

This is an inexpensive and effective way to promote native tree planting where it’s needed, to raise awareness about the value of native trees, and to hopefully encourage residents to think twice before removing healthy trees on their property.

I would recommend this model really for any municipality that has a similar fee-in-lieu fund. If you live in an area that historically may have been more grasslands than woodlands, you can perhaps use this funding to purchase and give away herbaceous plants instead.

06/11/2025

Herbarium records from the early 1900s show that two locally uncommon oaks used to grow at one of my local Pennsylvania State Parks. The Blackjack oak (Quercus marilandica) and Post oak (Quercus stellata) were both documented growing in the direct area, but may have since been extirpated. This is likely due to fire suppression, mesophication, deer pressure, and invasive species, which have greatly altered the species found within the park. 🌳

So my non-profit () teamed up with Park staff, volunteers, and local Girl Scouts to plant two of each of these oaks at the park! The planting areas were first cleared of invasive species including multiflora rose, border privet, wineberry, callery pear, and Linden viburnum. We’re excited to see how they do!

02/11/2025

One of the native plant gardens that we installed last fall with folks from Wild Ones caught some herbicide drift after the adjacent turf grass was treated to kill broadleaf weeds. This led to stunted growth or death for many of the plants around the perimeter.

Despite this, there were still lots of blooms in its first year, and I’m looking forward to watching it fill in more densely next year!

In my opinion, there are certainly cases where the use of herbicide is justified, especially where it is applied carefully to a cut stump or squirted into a hacked woody plant and not broadcasted over a large area. Treating turf that nobody pays attention to just to reduce the dandelions, clovers, and violets makes no sense to me.

25/10/2025

Trees planted in parking lots experience a lot of stressful conditions that limit their ability to grow and thrive.

In addition to increased heat, soil compaction, a limited soil volume, and poor soils, trees in parking lots often struggle to get enough water.

It's clear that we need fewer parking lots and more green space, but for parking lot islands designed for tree planting, we need to rethink the process. Can we widen the tree pits, design them to allow water to flow in, or limit foot traffic and soil compaction?

What do you think of parking lot trees?

12/10/2025

This past spring, Community Canopy Project, the non-profit that I started in 2020, received a grant from Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to convert 10 acres of mowed turf into riparian buffer woodlands. A riparian buffer is a vegetated area near a stream. Compared to mowed turf, the native trees and shrubs we’re planting will reduce flooding, provide great habitat for insects and other wildlife, improve the beauty of the community, store carbon, and clean the air and water.

In the spring, we planted about 3 of those 10 acres! We’re aiming to plant about the same this fall, and we’d love your help if you’re interested in volunteering with us to help install these native plants. As a volunteer, you’ll learn how to properly plant these woodies, why we’re planting these specific plants, and why this work is important. It’s also fun to connect and chat with other volunteers!

If you’re interested in joining us for one of our remaining fall events, you can visit our website at CommunityCanopyProject.org/upcoming-events — we’d love to see you there!

If you’d like to support us, but can’t make any in-person events, you can consider donating! These funds will be used to help us plan new projects, buy more native plants, and maintain these plantings until they establish! You can visit our donation page at CommunityCanopyProject.org/donate

Thanks so much!

07/10/2025

I'm a big fan of the Philadelphia Mycology Club, so I thought I'd show just a bit of what I learned at some of their forays this year! If you're in southeast PA and are interested in learning more about local fungi, they're the group for you!

Their forays are fun for all skill levels and are a great way to connect with local folks, and their work is helping to make mycological research, community science, and land stewardship more accessible to everyone.

02/10/2025

This was the first year I tried growing some oaks (Quercus) and hickories (Carya) in an air-pruned raised bed, originally inspired by friend Nick at Living Soil Tree Farm.

This is a super efficient way to grow lots of saplings in a small amount of space. You just have to make sure to protect them adequately from squirrels, mice, and chipmunks.

This year, I grew swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor), chestnut oak (Q. montana), southern red oak (Q. falcata), and mockernut hickory (Carya tomentosa). Very happy with how it went!

I'll be trying it again this year but with some different species!

02/09/2025

Two years ago, I sent in leaf samples of two chestnut trees growing in the woods at a park in Philadelphia. They ended up being American Chestnuts that have either avoided being infected, or are "survivor trees" that are tolerant of the introduced pathogenic fungus that has nearly wiped out the species as a whole.

This article just came out in Grid Magazine with more information! Check it out!

If the Carpenter’s Woods chestnut trees are indeed resistant survivors, questions about their origin arise. In the middle of the woods with no trees known to be resistant nearby, how did they get there?

22/02/2025

To all my Pennsylvania folks - the state is offering free native trees when you remove certain invasive trees or shrubs from your property! Check it out:

The Pennsylvania Invasive Replace-ive Program is a new initiative that will give homeowners and others the option to remove invasive trees and shrubs from their property and replace them with native trees.

The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources is joined by several partner organizations to provide landowners and homeowners with up to five (5) FREE, healthy, young, native tree species to replace invasive trees and shrubs removed from their property, starting in May of this year. Check out the link to learn how you can take advantage of this upcoming program and register to receive up to five (5) free young native trees: https://www.pa.gov/agencies/pda/about-pda/boards-commissions/governors-invasive-species-council/pa-invasive-replace-ive-program.html -4bc54d3609-item-9174ae23a2