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Prevent compaction
Pre-construction planning also gives you the opportunity to work with the contractors to prevent excessive soil compaction in areas where trees will be planted.
These areas can be isolated from heavy equipment and other vehicles with sturdy fences, and fines can be levied on contractors for violations. It is crucial that soil designed to support tree root growth does not become compacted because growing trees in compacted soil is challenging.
Unfortunately, you are often left to choose trees for a site after it has been modified and the grading and construction of buildings, walks and other hard surfaces is completed. Even if you performed a pre-construction site analysis, a thorough site evaluation should be conducted after construction because equipment operations may have negatively impacted important soil attributes.
For example, equipment
often compacts a clay soil during construction turning a moderately well drained
soil that will support tree growth into a collection of poorly drained pools
of mud.
