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Re:Urban trees 'live fast, die young' compared to those in r... by criley2 on Thursday May 09, 2019 @09:25AM (#19868029)
The idea that we would use random natural selection for urban trees feels archaic. We don't use natural selection for our crops or livestock or much of anything any more.

Urban trees will almost assuredly, like all of the other lifeforms we grow and rely on, be altered through human selection (be it simple old techniques like cross breeding, or advanced techniques like genetic modification)

i.e. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_tree

Re:Urban trees 'live fast, die young' compared to those in r... by ip26 on Thursday May 09, 2019 @10:36AM (#19868640)
They already are. Most trees at the nursery are carefully cultivated strains, and many are clones.

I will admit it's handy when planting on my eighth acre to know ahead of time how big a tree will get, for example.