Trees, trees, trees.

[Canadian Visitor]

Very true. Here are some trees to consider...

Sweetgum tree
Aspen tree
Chinese Pistache tree
Cedrus deodara
Liquidambar styraciflua or Sweet Gum
Ginkgo biloba
Sky Tower Ginkgo
Deodar Himalayan Cedar
Palo Alto Sweetgum
slender silhouette sweetgum
green pillar oak
lombardy poplar tree
Goldspire Ginkgo
Armstrong Maple
Norway Maple
Trident Maple
London plane
Burgundy Sweetgum

I will disagree with a few of these.

Norway Maple - Non-native, highly invasive, tends to prevent anything from growing underneath it, including grass, and when it ages, tends to drop large heavy limbs [[can be lethal).

Aspen - Native, very short-lived, it is fast growing, but won't likely last past 30 years.

Ginkos are non-native, not invasive, but don't play host to almost anything that is. That is to say, they don't provide habitat or food for birds, insects or other local wildlife, they're almost statuary in the North American context.

****

Locusts are an understandable choice in an urban area, they tolerate compaction, pollution and salt to a great degree and keep on kicking.

But if one isn't a fan, there are many other choices.

****

Oaks, can be an excellent choice, much more durable an urban-tolerant than people tend to think.

But definitely a spring planting. Oaks survival rates are diminished quite a bit, as are most nut-bearing species when planted in fall.

Swamp White Oak is an extremely durable choice, which is native to [[southern) Michigan. The name notwithstanding, it will do fine in most backyards in a sunny location.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_bicolor


Kentucky Coffee Tree is another that I would expect to do quite well in southern Michigan, and is native there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky_coffeetree

[JBMcB]

Ginkos are non-native, not invasive, but don't play host to almost anything that is. That is to say, they don't provide habitat or food for birds, insects or other local wildlife, they're almost statuary in the North American context.

Not sure where you got this information - we had two at our old house and had nests in them all the time. Some squirrels and raccoons would even eat the fruit. The corollary to it not playing host to insects is that it's impervious to nearly every type of insect or disease. I think there is one type of fungus it's susceptible to, but it's pretty rare, even in it's native habitat. This is a byproduct of it's longevity - it's considered a living fossil, having not evolved significantly over the course of several million years.

It's relatively slow-growing, sturdy, and can live a LONG time. The only real downside is the relatively smelly fruit the females drop. Overall a great landscape tree to add to a city's mix.

[Canadian Visitor]

Not sure where you got this information - we had two at our old house and had nests in them all the time. Some squirrels and raccoons would even eat the fruit. The corollary to it not playing host to insects is that it's impervious to nearly every type of insect or disease. I think there is one type of fungus it's susceptible to, but it's pretty rare, even in it's native habitat. This is a byproduct of it's longevity - it's considered a living fossil, having not evolved significantly over the course of several million years.

It's relatively slow-growing, sturdy, and can live a LONG time. The only real downside is the relatively smelly fruit the females drop. Overall a great landscape tree to add to a city's mix.

I can't find the original study this morning, but a U of T Phd student named Eric Davies did a study a few years ago of native and non-native trees in Toronto. I found this in a media source....

Intrigued, he expanded his studies to songbirds, another vital component of every ecosystem. This time he went to Mount Pleasant Cemetery, which supports a great diversity of mature native and non-native trees well spaced apart. Eric positioned knowledgeable birders with stop watches at the four corners of chosen trees to record birds coming and going. Birds would fly into non-native ones willingly enough, but leave after four or five seconds. In native trees of the same genus, however, they entered and stayed, on average, 25 times longer. Obviously, native trees had what they needed and wanted -- something to eat.

In that study [[I will try to source the original somewhere) Ginko finished last for support native birds/insects, or at least that's my recollection.

Which is indeed why landscape architects love it. It doesn't get harassed by much. [[for now)