A fortnightly rant, FL-S style
The front-page article in yesterday’s WaPo detailed the ambitious efforts of some large American cities to reforest their urban landscapes: 100,000 new trees in Boston by 2020; 649,000 new trees in Seattle (one for every man, woman, and child in the city); 1 million new trees in Denver by 2025; and New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg’s titanic goal of 1 million new trees planted by 2018.
Mayor Mike wants you to know A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Actually, lots of them.
It’s great to see these governments taking such ambitious steps to reforest their neighborhoods. Trees eat up carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen. They help retain ground water and nutrients, and maintain soil-integrity by preventing erosion. They provide homes to songbirds and other critters. Most important? Trees help reduce ground temperatures by providing shade from the heat of summer days.
We’re encouraged that several Fredericksburg-area governments - including the City - have tree-planting and tree-replacement programs. Nothing adds beauty to a neighborhood better than trees.
But should it be the job of local government alone to reforest our treeless and blighted areas? Well, no.
Actually, tree-planting is everyone’s responsibility.
Around here, we have felled entire forests of pine, oak, hickory, maple, and sweetgum to build out our luxury-home subdivisions. And while doing that, we added insult-to-injury by scraping away most of the topsoil, leaving that martian-like clay which doesn’t percolate, cracks, and dries to hardpack in the summer heat.
Many of us have taken notice, volunteering time with our homeowner associations, houses of worship, PTOs, and scout troops to plant trees and shrubs in areas that need them. And that’s great!
But our responsibility should not end when the garden gloves and the spade shovels get stored away in the toolshed. Newly planted stock requires perpetual care: watering, weeding, feeding, mulching, trimming, and - in some cases - chicken-wire-fencing to keep deer and other animals at bay. It takes upwards of four years for plantings to become established, yet those same plantings remain at greatest risk for disease and death, for about seven years. That’s a lot of needed TLC!
With yet another year of governmental budget calamity upon us, we cannot count on our counties and the City to do this work, alone. Perhaps, we should not count on them at all. Our tree-planting and tree care volunteerism must continue, must grow.
And to grow, we must encourage our growing children to be a big part of our go-green plans. Kids love nature, thrilled to be a part of the planting process.
My kid says her happiest memories are of toiling in the garden with (Dad). That’s why - every spring - we plant new things around the property. This year, we planted 15 small trees - river birches, maples, crabapples, and dogwoods - from the Arbor Day Foundation.
Talk about your teachable moments!
It’s great for electeds to commit to ambitious reforestation efforts. But most communities cannot afford the steps taken in Boston, in Seattle, in Denver, and in the five boroughs of New York City.
Here in Fred2Blue Land, we must take it upon ourselves to continue the planting and the after-care of our precious trees. Together, we can add beauty to our community, help clean the air, retain our groundwater, keep our soil from eroding, and reduce the heat of our summer days.
‘Nothing could be greener.
RELATED STORY: This ain’t right. $2 million in budget cuts at the National Arboretum. WaPo has the story here.
Filed under: Environment, Local Economy, Local Politics, Sustainability
It is great to see our local governments getting involved. The challenge is to keep the momentum building.
With shortfalls in every governmental operating budget, it is conceivable that tree planting and after-care will go un-funded. That’s why it is good to see NGOs getting involved, especially houses of worship.
Only 60% of NYC’s planned new one million trees will be planted by the city. As the WaPo article notes, 400,000 would need to be planted on private property to make up one million new trees.
And, as you point out, planting the tree is not enough. Maintenance, and stewardship, are far more important for the long-term survival and health of street trees.
Yo, Flatbush!
I’m a Connecticut kid, raised where the soil has barely any clay content, compared to what is here in the Fredericksburg region of Virginia (where we have this rubbery, stinky martian-red clay).
One of the hardest lessons (we transplants to this area) learn is that there are many species that cannot be planted here as deeply as they might have been up North. And actually, this is something a lot of subdivision landscapers miss (probably because they are on the clock or running from job-to-job).
As a result of that, and not properly preparing the soil for plantings, there is huge waste in nursery stock. Otherwise hardy “city trees” like London Plain, planted too deeply or to hastily, wither and die in the brutal mid-summer heat.
So, a big part of our stewardship in the Fredericksburg region has to include familiarity with the soil conditions and the terrain.
I have never gotten the suburban obsession with nearly-treeless neighborhoods and vast lawns that require constant care and hardly ever get used - because if you DID trample the lawn too much, it’d get bare patches.
Green Miles - Isn’t the perfect green lawn the emodiment of The American Dream?
You are so right, though, and I think here in the southern reaches of NoVa, lawn care trumps tree care, any day. And it amazes me how people who live on less than a quarter-acre of land own tractors and large riding-mowers.
I live by wetlands, so I am very mindful of the chemistry people pour onto their lawns; I say pour because I have a nagging suspicion that my neighbors overdo it, exceeding the recommended application by a factor of 3 or 4. (Gee, what harm could that do?)
Sure, their lawns look like the infield at Churchill Downs, but at what cost? The nutrient runoff into the Chesapeake Bay watershed is a big problem, and getting bigger - AND - overfed lawns don’t develop deep roots and need more water. (Wait till Stafford County imposes another water emergency, banning lawn irrigation, like they did last year!)
At my home, we pulled up 35-40% of the sod to plant trees, shrubs, and perennial flowers. So, my watering needs are a fraction of my neighbors’.
Yo, Dan! Parks has also been paying much more attention to tree selection: * trees that are going to last * reduce or eliminate problems that cause folks to oppose trees * diversify the tree canopy * increase the percentage of native species * and so on.
For North-South transplants, HEAT Zones become more important than the cold hardiness zones we’re used to. There’s much more info available about that these days than there was even ten years ago.