February 2010Local Company Stakes its Future on TreesBy Mike BrungardtThe Green Sleeves Corporation, LLC, located on 18th Street, has created a new product which allows users to quickly and properly secure a tree to the ground, and easily make adjustments as the plant grows. According to the Green Sleeves’ website, www.greensleeves.com, many new trees die because the “tie around the young tree trunk isn’t moved regularly. It will eventually scrape through the bark of the tree and damage the cambium layer.” The cambium layer lies between the bark and wood of the trunk, and is important to a tree’s health. Because of the time involved in readjusting existing staking systems, many trees don’t get the attention they need, which can compromise their health and lead to fatalities. Over time tree stakes need to be repositioned to accommodate growth. Existing systems, in which the tie and crossbeam attached to a wood pole have to be regularly adjusted, takes time, especially for plantations of newly planted trees. Using screws instead of nails, the Green Sleeves system cuts the time spent on this process. The ties and crossbeams are easily adjusted by the turn of a few screws; simple, yet effective. According to Kevin Simons, Green Sleeves’ president, the company has “field tested the product all over San Francisco over the last three years on projects ranging from street tree installations, to rooftop gardens, to public plazas and parks.” The company maintains a team of field personnel, architects, installing contractors, and planners who continually evaluate ways to improve the product to make installation easy and quick. Green Sleeves are made of seventy percent recycled material, and are made to be used multiple times before the components themselves are recycled. Green Sleeves have been deployed at the community garden located at the 18th Street and the Interstate 280 interchange, where several trees have thrived using the new system. The Potrero Hill Neighborhood House has also used Green Sleeves in its landscape. However, because Green Sleeves is most effective in reducing labor on large scale projects, the company focuses its marketing on contractors and tree planting organizations. According to Simons, “Anybody who’s familiar with the challenges associated with planting trees in a heavy urban environment is very quick to specify Green Sleeves. Anybody who knows about the cost associated with maintaining trees after they’ve been planted is quick to adopt.” |
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