The document discusses street tree planting details and stormwater management techniques. It provides guidelines for properly planting street trees, including setback distances from utilities, intersections, and other infrastructure. It also lists social, environmental, and economic benefits of street trees. The document then describes bioretention and infiltration basins for managing stormwater runoff. Bioretention areas treat stormwater through plants and soil, while infiltration basins recharge groundwater by infiltrating stormwater into the soil. Both techniques remove pollutants from stormwater.

1. Street Tree Planting Details & Stormwater Management
Benefits of Trees Planting Details Bioretention Infiltration Baisins
Zachary Beaulieu

2. Street Tree Planting Details & Stormwater Management
Street Tree Planting Procedures & Benefits of trees
When planting on a street there are certain procedures that must be taken in order for a tree not to invade
into the road, utility wires, street lights and blocking viewsheds. To keep trees from affecting these areas certain
practices can occur such as setbacks and minimum planting bed space. Some of the planting procedures that
are necessary to take place while planting a new street tree:
1) Tree must be placed 3 1/2 feet back from the face of the curb
2) 5 feet from underground utility lines
3) Min... 10 feet from power poles (15’ recommended)
4) 7 1/2 feet from diveways (10’ recommended)
5) 20 feet from street lights
6) 30 feet from street intersections
7) Min.. of 25 feet of spacing
Street trees offer many social, environment, communal, and
economic benefits.
Social Benefits:
-Trees create a more peaceful, calm and resting experience
-Studies show that people who are recovering from surgery
tend to recover more quickly when they have a view of
trees
-Trees can provide spaces with privacy, enhance and
emphasize views
-Reduce and reflect glare
Environmental Benefits
- Trees help moderate the climate
- Capture pollution that is bad for the environment
- Improve air quality
- Conserve water
- Reduce stormwater runoff
- Harbour wildlife
Communal Benefits
- Bring communities together
- Get people to plant and maintain the trees
Economic Benefits
- Trees can increase property values
- Reduce energy costs
- Trees cool homes in summer reducing air conditioning costs
- Trees help protect the cold winter winds

3. Street Tree Planting Details & Stormwater Management
Planting Detail
1) -Plant a 2” caliper tree or larger because it is more difficult to vandalize these trees
-Limbs should be start 5’ above ground
2) -When planting the hole should be excavated to the crown
of the trunk
-Hole should be roughly 3 times larger than root ball
-If area is heavily compacted, the soil should be loosened
around the area of planting (5’ from planting area at 18” deep)
-If soil is extremely poor, amend slightly
-Make sure water drains away from pit
-Tamp bottom of pit thoroughly to prevent settling of tree
-Top of root ball should be slightly above existing grade
3) -If road and sidewalk are present a root barrier is needed
-Place root barrier against curb and sidewalk
-Place barrier 6’ in both directions to help
prevent damage to road, curb, and sidewalk
4) -Root ball should not be damaged
-Remove all wire, string and burlap
-Rough up sides of root ball to eliminate root
circling
5) -Set tree straight
-Root ball should be slightly above existing grade
-When backfilling the hole, tamp soil to eliminate
air pockets
-Create a ring/water dam at least 2’ from trunk
-Add 3” of mulch around tree area
-Pull mulch away from trunk to prevent decay
6) -Water tree immediately and thoroughly
-Water twice a week for first month
-Then once a week for remainder of season
7) -Staking of trees should only occur if needed
-Do not put stakes through root ball
-Remove after 1 year

4. Street Tree Planting Details & Stormwater Management
Stormwater Management: Bioretention
Stormwater management is the management of stormwater runoff, often using water retention facilities,
to provide controlled release into receiving waterways. Stormwater runoff is a result of water landing on a pervious
surface. The most sustainable way to collect this runoff is to create Infiltration Basins and Bioretention systems.
These systems allow for the runoff to percolate through the soil and plants. During this process many of the harmful
contaminants are removed from the water, which creates cleaner water into our waterways.
a
Bioretention:
Bioretention areas are used to treat stormwater runoff on site and are typically found within a parking lot or
small areas on a particular piece of land. Stormwater runoff is directed to these depressions on the site and the water
will percolate through plants and soil. After it goes through this process much, if not all the pollutants have been
removed. It then enters a perforated underdrain that in most cases in connected to the storm drain system.
Problems:
- Basins are designed to small to handle the stormwater
Treatment:
- Remove pollutants from the stormwater that comes off of parking lots
- Designed for small stormwater events
Bioretention Sectional Elevation

5. Street Tree Planting Details & Stormwater Management
Stormwater Management: Infiltration Basins
Infiltration Basin:
Infiltration Basins are shallow impoundments that are designed to infiltrate stormwater into the soil. They remove
many of the pollutants that are within the water. Infiltration Basins help to recharge the groundwater and restore
and help maintain normal river flows.
Problems:
- Have high failure rates
- Soil often gets clogged and water has difficult time to percolate into the soil
Pretreatment of water:
- Bio-swales, and vegetated filter strips are used to remove sediment
- This will help reduce maintenance costs
Treatment of water:
- Infiltration Basins remove pollutants
- Soils located in basins need to be stabilized to help prevent clogging
- Basin needs to be correct size, so it can treat a certain amount of water over a particular period of time
- Soil type is critical to percolation of water because certain types of soils are more permeable than others
Conveyance:
- The treatment of stormwater should be used so that it doesn't create erosion
- Should be used for smaller storms
- A flow separator which is used to separate small flows from larger ones
Applications:
- Stormwater runoff from parking lots, roads, and any areas that produce a lot of runoff
Sectional Elevation
of Infiltration Basin

6. Street Tree Planting Details & Stormwater Management
Sources
http://swcity.server278.com/Engineering/documents/Forms/tree_planting_4_3.pdf
http://www.stormwatercenter.net/
http://www.treesaregood.com/home.aspx