 Hi, my name is Caleb King, Arborist and Superintendent of the Forestry and Beautification Division under Public Works. As you may know, Arbor Day in South Carolina is celebrated on the first Friday in December. Arbor Day is an opportunity to slow down, look up, and celebrate the trees in our urban environment. Thanks to the support of our City Manager and City Council, we have an urban forest that is set up for success and a bright future. Did you know that trees planted in the urban environment have endless benefits? Those benefits include cooling cities by two to four degrees, supporting stormwater management, provide habitat for biodiversity, reduces pollution in small matter particulates, supports social cohesion, and my favorite, it's been proven to reduce stress. Unfortunately though, urban trees do not live forever. Tree removal is a necessity to the life cycle of a tree. However, with this comes the opportunity to plant, diversify the tree canopy, and reshape the future of Columbia's urban forest for generations to come. As a division, we plant nearly 500 trees in the city right of way every year between November to March. But what does it take to plant that many trees over such a short amount of time? Let's take a listen and a look in to some of the other city staff and arborist on a couple important topics. Did you know before you dig a hole for your new tree that South Carolina State Law requires that you contact SC-811 to locate underground utilities? Even we at the City of Columbia must have a locate put in every time we send a crew to grind a stump or plant a tree. You will need to contact SC-811 four work days prior to beginning work. This service is free and it's easy. By contacting SC-811, you can have underground utilities marked to keep them from being damaged or disrupting service. SC-811 locators will mark the placement of gas lines, electric lines, water lines, and communications lines. If you don't have the utilities located, you will be financially responsible for any damage you may cause. More importantly, you may save a life by not hitting a gas line or electric lines. There are three ways to contact SC-811. The first way is to simply call 811. The second way is through the SC-811 mobile app. And the third way is to visit the South Carolina 811 website at www.sc811.com. When you contact SC-811, you will need to provide an address where the work is to be done, the county and the municipality of the work location, the type of work to be done, in this case landscaping, who will be doing the work and you need to state whether or not the location of work is pre-marked. One way to pre-mark the planting location is to use white marking paint and or a white flag to clearly show where the tree is to be placed. Once that SC-811 work ticket has been created, you will be given a ticket number. The ticket will indicate when the work can begin and a date by which you can update the ticket if the work will progress past the ticket's expiration date. Only once all the utilities have been marked, work such as tree planting can begin. Hi, I'm Scott Holder, land development planner for the City of Columbia. A truly healthy tree requires access to enough uncompacted soil to receive the necessary water, mineral nutrients and oxygen it needs to thrive. Most urban soils are compacted, which means they don't allow room for root growth or water infiltration. Access to quality soil is critical to urban tree survival. When given the chance to live and grow in the appropriate quantity of healthy soil, urban trees are more resilient. In order to get an urban tree to reach its peak maturity and provide the maximum amount of benefits to its environment, up to 1,200 cubic feet of soil volume is needed for every large canopy tree like your oaks and maples and lindens. However, the amount of soil needed by one tree could be partially shared with another, which can lower the overall soil needed per tree. To get an idea of how much space that is, let's examine a typical tree planting for our region. On average, a tree sets its roots in the top three feet, which would require about 330 square feet of area. In many urban areas, it's too restrictive to accommodate those dimensions due to competing interest. Therefore, many landscape architects and other design professionals use different techniques to create accessible soil space underneath sidewalks and other hardscapes. One of the most successful options, and one that was used here at Foundation Square at Colonial La Farina, is the utilization of structural cells. These plastic structures are designed to be filled with soil and covered with pavement. They allow tree roots to grow in uncompacted soil. While also being structurally supportive to the hardscape above, they can be stacked and connected in different configurations. Like goldfish, trees will only grow as large as the space that you provide them, and by utilizing these suspended pavement systems, we can accommodate enough uncompacted root space to ensure the trees grow to their maximum benefit while also limiting the size of the tree opening at ground level. Hello and Happy Arbor Day! I am Ann Heiler with the Forestry and Beautification Division, and I plant street trees in the city of Columbia's Rite of Way. Several factors guide our choices for planting the right tree in the right spot. One factor helping us determine the right tree is tree diversity. A diverse tree population limits the spread of damage from harmful insects and pathogens. Two other factors help us choose the right spot, soil space and canopy space. Here, the soil space is approximately 5 feet between street and sidewalk. Also, we have available soil space in the yard over here. In addition, the canopy space has no overhead obstructions and we have essentially full sun east to west. This site could support a large canopy tree such as a black gum or an oak. Here, we have a slightly smaller soil space between street and sidewalk, but we also have a good sized yard nearby. Also, we have essentially full sun east to west. However, there are utility lines overhead in the canopy space. Here, we would choose trees with a short mature height so the limbs would not interfere with the utility lines overhead. Across the street, we have soil space that is restricted. Here, the canopy space has no overhead utility lines, but it does have shade from nearby trees which limit the amount of direct sun. At this site, we would plant a small canopy tree that is shade tolerant such as a redbud or dogwood. I hope this provides useful information about how we choose the right tree for the right spot. Now, it is time to plant a tree. Hi, I'm Carlos Nipson, a crew leader of Forest and Beautification Division. And my crew, which includes Tony Ellison and Tyree Anderson, we're responsible for planting trees in the right-of-ways here in the city of Columbia. And today, we're going to be planting this beautiful nut-all oak tree in this right-of-way. And today, we're going to give you a few tips on how to properly install and plant a tree. The first step you would like to do is to dig a hole and make sure the hole is two times the width of the tree. And that way, it will give the roots a chance to expand and grow nice and beautiful. And secondly, you would like to keep the tree ground level. You don't want to cover the root ball of the tree all the way up, so you keep it ground level. And thirdly, we would like to build a berm around the tree, and that will help keep the moisture in, and that will also keep the vegetation from growing inside of the tree. In conclusion, we'd like to say happy Arbor Day. Hello again, and thanks for joining us for this Arbor Day special. I hope this has been informative and also encouraged you to plant a tree. Again, happy Arbor Day, and thanks for joining us.