Prairie Village plans seminar on preferred trees for KC area

Between the stress of the drought on local trees and the imminent appearance of the emerald ash borer that threatens to decimate the area’s ash trees, you might be wondering what to plant next.

The Prairie Village Tree Board is bringing an expert in to talk about “Great Trees for the Kansas City Region” at its fall seminar at 7 p.m. October 3 in the council chambers of the city building.

Robert Whitman, a landscape architect and associate vice president at Gould Evans is the speaker who will share the process he developed to create a preferred tree list for the Kansas City region and the results of his survey of trees.

Whitman has considerable experience in site development, urban design and community planning projects. He is an avid researcher on regional plant materials and frequently consults with communities in the area on their street tree programs.

The drought has caused considerable stress on many of the areas trees. The presentation will help residents decide what they should plant next if they need to replace trees and which trees are better adapted to our area and can survive the kind of stress we have seen lately.

The ash tree, susceptible to the emerald ash borer, has been removed from the city’s tree selection list for several years.