Heritage Trees
In order to adequately protect its trees, Boulder needs to:
- improve existing tree protection ordinances
- put in place a special Heritage Tree Protection Ordinance. A Heritage Tree Protection Ordinance would give special protection to those trees deemed of particular value to our city.
What is a Heritage tree?
Though not necessarily the largest trees of their species, Heritage Trees – also called Landmark or Historic trees - have unique or noteworthy characteristics or values related to their size, species, age, historical significance, or location. In addition to the environmental, aesthetic, and property values of all trees, Heritage Trees are the trees that lend a “sense of place” to communities and offer countless benefits for making neighborhoods and shopping areas feel special.
What is a Champion Tree?
There are 83 State Champion Trees in Boulder, including the State Champion Horsechestnut. These trees range from first to fifth largest of their species in the state. Currently they are not protected. All of these trees would be included under the provisions of a Heritage Tree Protection Program.
To learn more about Colorado’s State Champion Trees go to Colorado Tree Coalition’s
Does Boulder have a Heritage Tree Protection program?
There is currently no program in the city of Boulder to nominate, designate, and protect trees that would qualify as Heritage Trees. Partly in response to the damage done to the State Champion Horsechestnut, City Council has asked that research on a Heritage Tree Protection Program for Boulder begin.
Heritage Tree Protection Programs in other cities.
Cities and states all over the country have Heritage Tree Protection Programs in place. San Francisco, Palo Alto, Santa Cruz, Seattle, Vancouver, Portland, Albany, Ashland, Jacksonville and soon, Denver are just a few.
To learn about these programs google Heritage Tree Protection Programs and dozens of sites will come up.
To learn about Heritage Tree Ordinance guidelines visit the International Society of Arboriculture.
savebouldertrees.org will keep you up to date about the progress of Boulder’s Heritage Tree Protection program.