But Mr. Rafferty said that even a vigilant metals buyer would have trouble spotting unmarked pieces, like the tree grates, buried in a truckload of junk.
As CityLab report, it's easier to maintain than soil, doesn't wash away, costs less than metal tree grates, keeps trees healthy and saves rubber tyres from landfill – as well as providing a stable surface for pedestrians to walk on.
In downtown Canonsburg, all of the tree grates are marked with information about the records that sold a million copies and the town clock hourly plays one of the hits of Como (141), Vinton (44), or the Four Coins (7), also from Canonsburg.
With an increase in the price of scrap metal, things like manhole covers and tree-protecting grates have been going missing.
The winner: honey locust trees, a steel grate parquet floor and translucent fabric lanterns, all lighted from beneath.
If you look through a subway grate and see a tree growing at the slimy bottom, ecologists say, it will almost certainly be an Ailanthus, known as the Tree of Heaven, from China and the Korean peninsula.
On Wednesday alone, the New York police arrested three men for stealing hunks of cast iron — grates made to protect tree roots and manhole covers weighing as much as 300 pounds.
Use the Doodad Palette to apply individual features ranging from natural tree walls to man-made structures such as grates and bridges to the map.
At the Place, a near legendary "in the rough" restaurant in Guilford where people sit outside on tree stumps, clams are roasted and served on steel grates.
