VICENZA -- The fall season is usually considered appropriate for all the operations involving pruning and trimming trees and plants.
Taking advantage of the beginning of the dormant season, all pine trees were pruned on Caserma Ederle's Olson Avenue, and the project wraps up today.
The project may have caused a few inconveniences for road traffic and parking accessibility, but was necessary to prevent future weather-related issues. In fact, starting in fall, but especially during wintertime, natural agents such as wind, heavy rain or, eventually, snow may cause damage to the trees.
"During this past summer, in central Italy, thousands of this type of tree had issues even when the wind storms were not as strong as tornados," said Roberto Segato, chief of Building and Grounds of the Directorate of Public Works.
"The shape of pine trees as 'umbrella inside out' exposes them easily to the ravages of the snow and wind sail effect. The pine trees live in sandy ground and their roots are not as deep as other types of trees, and make them vulnerable," he continued.
Because of safety, the decision was made to start pruning at the beginning of November. Nine employees worked on the 64 trees that flank Olson Avenue for approximately two weeks.
The last time DPW accomplished this operation was nine years ago, said Segato.
"The cleaning and trimming preserves them also from plant diseases that may put at risk the tree itself," added Segato.
Employees of the DPW Environmental and Entomology section helped with the big project.
"It was a cooperative effort; we all worked together to achieve a good result," DPW entomologist Davide Donà said, while checking one of the trees along with his co-worker Giacomo Toniolo.
"Working on this operation had several goals. One was to prevent that probable snowing could break branches that were already broken and, potentially, the falling of the tree," said Franco Lidron, DPW entomologist. "It also helped reduce tree volume and unwanted branches that give to the plant a wrong shape," he continued.
By removing some lower branches and crown's reduction pruning, the trees will benefit and look well proportioned.
Additionally, the reduced quantity of dry branches is a long-term goal because during summertime it will reduce issues of fire hazard, said Lidron.
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