No Safe Arbor in the City (City Trees Rapidly Disappearing)

[Barrett808]

No Safe Arbor in the City
By John Balzar Times Staff Writer

Eric Oldar doesn't have to go far to find the alarming evidence. He lifts his sizable 6-foot-5 frame out of his office chair, walks 20 paces to the door, steps outside and glumly eyes the culprit: a spindly crape myrtle tree. A whole row of them bordering the Riverside parking lot.

Actually, crape myrtles aren't trees. They are shrubs that grow to look something like trees in miniature.

And that, in short, is the problem. That is what puts a knot in Oldar's jaw and leaves him muttering: "People want quality lives and communities — they say so. But subtly, all around them, they're losing one of the essentials."

Our grand city trees are disappearing.

The towering trees that provide us cooling shade and save on air conditioning; the trees that give roost to birds; the broad-shouldered trees that soak up the heavy rains before they gather into floodwaters; the trees that cleanse our air and muffle the roar of metropolitan life; the great trees that inspire the poet in our battered urban hearts; the trees that soften the sharp corners of crowded living and connect us to the majesty of nature — the trees are going away.

...

"We're eliminating trees," says Oldar with a deep sigh. "We're letting them become trivialized; without really paying attention, we're letting them disappear."

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20040308/ts_latimes/nosafearborinthecity

[callous taoboy]

1. Our small town

routinely brutalizes 500 year old Post Oak trees by covering their root zones with 3 feet of top soil.

[klook]

2. Trees are a vital part of urban infrastructure

The decline in trees has certainly been noticeable in Atlanta, a metro area where, according to a BBC story, 154,000 hectares (380,000) acres of trees were lost between 1973 and 1992, a rate of 22 hectares (55 acres) per day. Since 1992 many more trees have been lost. Every week another mini-forest is mowed down for new residential, business, or road development.

So we end up with a worsening cycle of summer drought and pollution, more air conditioning, more cars and SUVs, and all the attendant health and quality-of-life issues.

Is it a coincidence that Atlantans now suffer through some of the most nightmarish commutes in the country?

Fortunately, folks like the USDA Center for Urban Forest Research are working to protect urban trees and encourage tree planting and care.

And many urban areas of all sizes have ordinances in place to protect trees. The Urban Forestry South web site has info about these in the southeastern U.S. I'm sure there are similar resources for other areas.

Legislative solutions don't always work, though. The developer who put a new house on a vacant lot in my neighborhood had to plant some new trees with trunks a couple of inches in diamater to replace the large old trees he removed (or face fines of several hundred dollars). After a year in the house, the new homeowners cut down the replacement trees, which were too small to fall under the county's legal protection. So much for the tree ordinance.

There are still a lot of trees in my city, and I'm encouraged to see new ones being planted all the time. But it's an ongoing fight to ensure the long-term vitality of trees, and thence our urban environment.

Thanks, Barrett808, for reminding me how important this is. Soon as I can, I'm going to climb a tree.

[noonwitch]

3. Detroit had to learn the hard way, too

They planted half the city with Dutch Elms, which all died in the 70s of Dutch Elm disease. There are still treeless neighborhoods, but those who replaced their elms with maples have decent-sized trees at this point.
The elms in Detroit were beautiful, however. My grandparents' neighborhood was lined with them-the arched over the street and made a roof, almost.

[radwriter0555]

4. Los Angeles has the largest urban forest in the nation.. BUT thanks to

BILLBOARD cos, massive numbers of trees are mutilated and hacked down DAILY along commercial streets so that consumers can have that un-obstructed view that CLEAR CHANNEL and VIACOM promise their customers.

Drive along PICO or OLYMPIC and you will see block after block of bare sidewalks underneath and adjacent to BILLBOARDS.... It's disgusting..... it costs several thousand dollars and takes YEARS to replace one single tree. In 1994 I replaced more than 100 trees on Sunset Blvd that had been taken out and cut down by the billboard cos.

Right now the city is tracking down which billboard co had two big trees on Sunset Blvd chopped down on a SUNDAY MORNING at 6:30 am; the cops CAUGHT the guys are have them on 100K bond!

If you EVER see tree cutters working on a weekend morning on a city tree, call the cops...

The BILLBOARD COMPANIES suck up your tax dollars and ruin YOUR community value.

I hate them.