Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton The City of Warren’s Parks, Recreation and Landscape Commission discussed the health of the city’s urban forest. This tree, one of the more notable in the city, is located by the Jefferson Tea House at the intersection of Market St. and Pennsylvania Ave.

Warren has been designated a “Tree City USA” by the Arbor Day Foundation for 35 years.

That program highlights the city’s commitment to maintaining and growing its “urban forest.”

But there’s a fair amount of work that goes into that process.

And those efforts were discussed by city officials during Tuesday’s Parks, Recreation and Landscape Commission meeting.

More trees were planted than removed by the city in 2023 – 55 to 38.

City Arborist Joe Reinke said the primary reason for the removals was safety.

“As an urban forester, I’m mostly concerned with targets and predictability,” he said. “(You) can tell from the ground what that three is going to do under our weather conditions.”

The threshold, he said, is typically 30 percent or more deadwood, at which point he’ll recommend a pruning or removal.

“We want to plant more trees than we cut,” he added, explaining that the city does its best “to protect trees to get them to maturity.”

Nearly 200 more trees have been planted than removed since 2018.

That increase has also seen an increase in the types of species that are being planted.

“In the 60s, 70s and 80s,” the city planted Norway Maples,” he said. “I assume we had easy access to them.”

“It’s almost 14 percent of your whole inventory,” District Forester Cecile Stelter explained. “Before it was deemed an invasive tree, every community liked to plant Norway trees.”

But, she said, foresters “can see trends in plantings in communities in urban areas.” Elm was popular before they were ravaged by disease and were replaced by ash and sugar maples.

“It’s very trendy,” Stelter added. We try to have a diverse forest because it’s more resilient…. It’s a really good sign that you’re diversifying. Each of these trees has a different life span.”

It will also mean that any insect or disease issues will have less of an impact because of the species variety.

One species that is on the decline – courtesy of the emerald ash borer – is ash.

“(There are a) handful on their last leg,” Reinke said. “Some look really good. We do still have a handful of ash that are still out there.”

One area of the city’s forest that’s growing too quickly is the trees on the islands near the Third Ave. bridge. Those were cut just two years ago.

“They grew so fast,” Commission Chair Mike Suppa said. “It’s incredible.”

Reinke said there was over 20 feet of growth in one year.

“A lot of the growth is suckers, growing off root systems that weren’t removed,” he said.