By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
When Kirk Wagner of Upstream Waters noticed some empty tree grates in downtown Dowagiac, he called City Hall and took it upon himself to fill them.
The 1988 Union High School graduate has had the landscaping business on Dutch Settlement Street east of town for 10 years.
Tuesday – "our last nice day," he noted on gloomy Wednesday afternoon – three people from Wagner's business and city crews planted the six trees Upstream Waters donated – five locusts and a maple.
Locusts were planted in the central business district because of their open branches, which are thought not to attract much bird attention based on the few nests seen in others.
Wagner said the typical drawback to locusts is their shallow root systems.
"We see this a lot," he said. "Roots tend to spread out rather than go down and eventually buckle the sidewalks."
These, however, have been "cribbed" to drive their roots deeper, Wagner explained.