Recommended Trees To Plant

Homeowners can help Spokane’s “urban forest” by selecting trees that are easy to care for and that will provide greater diversity of trees to the city.

City parks staff offers these suggestions on the best trees to plant:

For small spaces of about 20 feet, try the Amur chokecherry and corneliancherry dogwood.

For medium spaces of about 35 feet, consider columnar beeches, columnar hornbeams and Turkish filbert trees.

For spaces of at least 45 feet in diameter, consider sweet gums, American linden, white oak, autumn purple oak, Chinese elm, zelkova and sugar maples.

Of those, the best fall leaf color is found in the sugar maples, autumn purple oak and sweet gums.

Currently, Spokane has about 200 different kinds of street trees.

About 135 species are found on the South Side, with Norway maple by far the most common.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: Reducing the height of a large tree

MEMO: See main story under headline: Our precious trees.