On July 16, Carbondale Town Arborist Carl Meinecke led the Town’s annual tree walk. The summer stroll offered community members the opportunity to learn about the public tree canopy from Meinecke and members of the Carbondale Tree Board, who otherwise are kept busy ensuring planting and maintenance of a healthy mountain town forest and park system.
Back in early May, Meinecke and the community planted a new tree in recognition of Arbor Day — a fast-growing honey locust planted in Hendrick Park. Carbondale maintains its status as a certified Tree City by planting a new tree on public ground and observing Arbor Day each year.
In the past few years, the Tree Board has planted several other trees around Carbondale. For the 2024 Arbor Day event, a Kentucky coffee tree was planted at Colorado Meadows Park, which Meinecke recently said was doing well.
“This species is interesting as it leafs out late,” he said. “We planted a seedless cultivar to avoid the large pods it can have. It gets its name from brown seeds in big pods that look like coffee beans.”
In 2025, Meinecke guided Carbondale community members in planting a chinkapin oak and a David elm within the green space off of Hendrick Drive, also for Arbor Day.
“The chinkapin oak is a nice oak that is not as common in Carbondale. I only know of one other chinkapin oak on Town property in Miners Park,” Meinecke said.
He explained that the David elm is a new tree he had not planted before, but it was recommended by the late Vince Urbina as one of the better elm cultivars to try.
“[The David elm] should not be as large as the many Siberian elms we have in town, and is resistant to Dutch elm disease and other common insects and diseases that afflict elms,” Meinecke said.
He also shared updates with The Sun on the mitigation of the emerald ash borer infestation, for which the Town treated and removed a number of trees in 2024. Eleven of 13 tree plantings in 2026 are meant as replacements of ash trees that were removed.
“Water availability is important for trees getting treated, so that the product can be drawn up through the trees’ vascular system along with water,” Meinecke said. “Next spring of 2027, the Town will begin its second round of treatments on high-value ash.”
Carbondale has signed on to have its inventory of trees updated this summer, which will provide important information relevant to the treated ash trees.
“The inventory update is important to collect data on all our public trees in Carbondale,” Meinecke pointed out, noting that the Town has approximately 4,000 in all.
“This data will be invaluable for the Town to continue maintenance of its public trees, and consider long-term goals and strategies for our public tree canopy for future generations,” he said.
Meinecke noted that there are drought-tolerant trees folks can choose from, but that they will still need regular moisture in the beginning.
“There can be many drought-tolerant trees and plants that are good choices for our area,” he said, emphasizing that consistent watering is important for new trees.
“The important thing to remember is that even a drought-tolerant tree will still need water to become established throughout its first one to three years after planting,” he explained. “The first year is crucial to not allow the root ball to dry out — keep it moist but not swampy. The next few years are also important to continue to water and keep the greater area around the tree moist.”
Meinecke recommends using mulch and paying attention to irrigation in the early years after planting new trees.
“Keep mulch away from the trunk [so] as to not choke it … donuts of mulch, not volcanoes around new trees,” he quipped.
“A newly planted tree can become a real asset to our community,” he said. “I really love that I get to be part of planting and maintaining all our newly planted trees for the Town.”
Community members can learn more about Carbondale trees and resources via the Tree Board’s page on the Town’s website, carbondalegov.org