Town, Communities in Bloom host tree pruning workshop
By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Communities in Bloom and the Town of Strathmore are hosting a free fruit tree pruning workshop, March 9, aiming to teach members of the community proper care and maintenance of their trees.
Max Vickers, speaking on behalf of the Town of Strathmore, and who will be operating the workshop, said the basics of how to prune trees and why it is important will be among the topics covered during the session.
“We are going to be talking about how to execute pruning cuts, deciding when the best time is to do some pruning – we are going to get into how to increase fruit production in your fruit trees, and I am going to get into some of the other basics of general tree pruning,” he said. “It is something that is pretty new. We started only doing these workshops in the last year or two.”
Vickers said teaching people how to take care of their trees is incredibly important towards supporting both the lives of the trees, but also in the context of environmental stewardship.
“Trees are incredibly important not only to humans, but to the environment that we all share … things are harder with the climate challenges we have been having over the last decade or so, and I do not perceive things going in a positive direction,” he said. “Teaching people the importance of, and how to take care of their trees will just go a long way in increasing general environmental viability, and just allowing people to perhaps get some education into something they find really interesting or want some more information on.”
In general, a wide variety of fruit trees are a common sight in Strathmore, from those present on private residential properties, to the birth forest project on Centennial Drive.
Vickers added as urban environments differ greatly from contexts trees evolved to naturally occur in, pruning has become critically important to their sustained health and longevity.
“Trees existed long before humans did, so they can generally survive without pruning, but being that we are introducing trees to urban environments that have a much different setting than before people existed and harvested, pruning trees will help prolong the lifespan of the tree itself,” he said. “You can increase aesthetics dramatically with proper pruning done in appropriate amounts.”
The workshop will be taking place at the corner of Thomas Drive and Centennial Drive, running from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. Those who are interested in participating are asked to bring their own pruners if they possess them.