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Driven by Demand Media

by Ethan Shaw, Demand Media

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Trees for Noise Barriers | Home Guides | SF Gate

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/trees-noise-barriers-24197.html
A dense planting of trees and shrubs creates an effective noise barrier.

A noisy highway, intersection or commercial business can be a real burden for the nearby property owner. As visually pleasing and insular as a yard might be, a
constant roar or bustle can greatly diminish its aesthetics. Planting evergreen trees and shrubs to serve as a noise barrier can be quite effective and offer the
added bonus of enhancing the beauty and privacy of your outdoor space.
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Basics
A thick hedge of evergreen trees can buffer your property from a nearby noise source. The University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service suggests two or
three rows of plants can cut down noise by more than seven decibels. The ideal noise barrier hedge is dense and tall enough that you cant easily see through or
over it, and the effect is bolstered by planting vegetation in multiple rows and multiple tiers, such as an overstory of tall trees, an understory of tangled shrubs,
and a ground cover. You can enhance your noise barrier even more by first installing an earthen berm of several feet, then planting atop and around it to diminish
by a third or half the perceived loudness of a nearby noise source.

Possible Tree Species

A number of native species offer good potential as noise-screening plantings. Western hemlocks (Tsuga heterophylla) can grow closely together and their
interlacing sprays of foliage create a dense mask. A hedge of coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) can work, too. Other members of the cypress family
(Cupressaceae) are commonly planted as hedges and can achieve a buffering effect with tight-packed scaly foliage and interlocking canopies. Leyland cypress
(Callitropsis x leylandii) a hybrid of Monterey cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa), a Californian native of highly restricted natural range, and Alaska cedar
(Callitropsis nootkatensis) of the Pacific Northwest is a very popular choice because of its conical growth form, well-suited for limited space. Western red cedar
(Thuja plicata), another Northwest native, can be planted to similar effect.

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Native Combination Plantings

Incorporating both trees and shrubs into a noise barrier is both a good choice for acoustic buffering and promoting native vegetation communities. Your barrier
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can mimic the near-jungle layout of native Mediterranean chaparral, that tangled scrub woodland of oaks and various shrubs so predominant along the
Californian coast and foothills. Coast live oaks (Quercus agrifolia) could overlook an understory screen of manzanita (Arctostaphylos spp.), California bay
(Umbellularia californica) and other evergreen chaparral shrubs. You could also reflect a dense seacoast pine woodland with lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) or
bishop pine (P. muricata) thicketed with Pacific wax myrtle (Myrica californica), Pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii) and tanoak (Notholithocarpus densiflorus).

Composing and Situating

Hedges perform best as noise barriers the closer they are to the source of the sound, not the property to be buffered. A row of shrubs near the noise source and
backed by a belt of trees is one effective design, particularly if the plants are staggered in a closely packed triangular orientation rather than in straight lines.
Trees and shrubs must be planted with adequate space in between, depending on the individual species. Coast redwoods, for example, need at least four feet
between one another in a pruned hedge, while shrubs like wax myrtle can be nestled more closely.
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About the Author

Ethan Shaw is a writer and naturalist living in Oregon. He has written extensively on outdoor recreation, ecology and earth science for outlets such
as Backpacker Magazine, the Bureau of Land Management and Atlas Obscura. Shaw holds a Bachelor of Science in wildlife ecology and a graduate
certificate in geographic information systems from the University of Wisconsin.

Photo Credits

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