Heat-related illness is real, but heat often acts as a trigger rather than the final diagnosis. In a study of 74.2 million U.S. adults, extreme heat was associated with a 7.8% higher relative risk of emergency-department visits from any cause, 30.4% higher risk for renal disease, and 7.9% higher risk for mental disorders. Read the... More
Introduction Street trees can meaningfully contribute to slowing traffic and creating safer urban streets — an important benefit that is often overlooked. When thoughtfully integrated into a streetscape, trees can reinforce lower driving speeds, help define the roadway and create visual and spatial separation between vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians. Street Design Influences Driving Speed A... More
Introduction Underground stormwater storage systems don’t always play nicely with trees. They’re typically designed as siloed subsurface systems — isolated from surrounding soil and root zones to reduce risk and simplify performance. Trees, on the other hand, require space, soil volume, and access to water to grow and thrive. The result is a disconnect. Stormwater... More
The landscape architecture world lost an influential voice recently with the passing of Robin Mack Key — a talented designer, preservationist, and steward of some of New York’s most meaningful cultural landscapes. Robin was also an extended member of the DeepRoot family: she was the sister-in-law of DeepRoot Vice President Al Key, cofounder of the... More
Jim Urban, FASLA, is an expert on urban trees and soils — as well as being intimately involved in the development and design of the Silva Cell system. Author of the industry bible on urban forestry, Up By the Roots, Urban has also proven to be a fountain of wisdom for various inquiries about trees,... More
Introduction Municipal street reconstruction is often triggered by aging underground infrastructure: water mains, sewer lines, utilities, sidewalks, curbs, or drainage systems that have reached the end of their service life. But once a street is opened up, the project becomes more than a repair. It becomes a planning opportunity. Instead of simply replacing old infrastructure... More
Originally written by Nathalie Shanstrom in 2014; reviewed and updated by DeepRoot in 2026. As discussed in previous blogs, trees and soil systems provide stormwater benefits in many different ways: Cleansing: Trees clean stormwater through many different mechanisms, including filtration, adsorption, and plant uptake. Interception: Interception is the amount of rainfall temporarily held on tree... More
A recent research study conducted by Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories tackled the question of the best methodology to grow trees in cities, with the ultimate goal of reaping benefits that mitigate the impact of climate change. The study (Comparison of Tree Responses to Different Soil Treatments Under Concrete Pavement) was produced by Dr. E Thomas... More
Introduction Helping cities grow trees is what we do at DeepRoot — but it’s important not to think about tree count as the sole metric in achieving urban canopy goals. Thriving tree canopies are built one tree at a time, one project at a time, through individual decisions that determine whether a tree merely gets... More
Introduction Not long ago — as recently as 10–15 years ago — trees were often the first thing to go when design conflicts appeared. If roots might interfere with utilities, sidewalks, or foundations, the simplest solution was to remove the tree from the plan. Infrastructure came first; trees were treated as optional. DeepRoot’s vice president... More
Can you estimate a tree’s diameter at breast height (DBH) based on its caliper measurement? The short answer is no. Caliper and DBH both measure trunk diameter, but they measure it at different heights and are used for different purposes. There is no reliable formula for converting one to the other, but the chart below... More
Urban tree canopy is the layer of leaves, branches and stems covering an urban area when viewed from above. Expressed as a percentage of land area, it provides a useful high-level picture of the extent of a community’s urban forest. Below is the most current comprehensive 50-state canopy summary we could identify. The analysis was... More
Soil. Stormwater. Sustainable Infrastructure.
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