Nine Elm Trees Planted Downtown

Nine Princeton American Elms have been planted in front of the stores on Main Street in downtown Duluth to replace the crape myrtles that were removed.

The new canopy trees were planted the last week of January. “These trees grow to about 90 feet in height,” said City Manager Tim Shearer. “The city intends to gradually prune off the lower branches as they grow so the lowest branches will be higher than the businesses’ windows, signs, and, in many cases, actually higher than the roof,” Shearer said.

“This will prevent the trees from blocking visibility of the storefronts and signs, while providing cool shade in the spring, summer and fall,” he said.

The Duluth City Council authorized removing and replacing the crape myrtles with canopy trees at its December meeting. The new trees will need to be watered through the summer to help them become established.

The crape myrtles were removed so the Main Street stores and their signs would be more visible to shoppers.