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TOM ARRANDALE
<br /> Go Ahead Hug a Tree •
<br /> It's Good for You
<br /> our city parks department may ing only a quarter of the seedlings more than $600,000 in pollution con -
<br /> be lucky to have enough money needed just to maintain existing urban trol costs.
<br /> these days just to mow the grass forests. Even when properly watered Chicago's forestry bureau now plans
<br /> or put new nets on the rims for play- and trimmed, trees often live only seven to expand the city's urban forests by
<br /> ground basketball players. So it's not to 15 years under big -city stress; saving planting 10,000 seedlings a year and
<br /> surprising that many cities and coun- money through a few years of neglect keeping mature trees healthy by trim -
<br /> ties are cutting back on planting new risks irreversible damage to parks and ming them every six years. Michigan
<br /> trees —and on keeping the existing ones neighborhoods. State University foresters are helping
<br /> alive —in order to save money for other Forest researchers are finding that Detroit block associations plant fruit
<br /> services. parks, greenbelts and tree -lined streets trees, Christmas trees other r ben -
<br /> But communities that neglect their make contributions to eficial 6 trees vacant
<br /> trees may be losing much more than big -city and subur- ci Voters in Po
<br /> pleasant summer shade and colorful ban life that go far 1. lond, Oregon, and
<br /> autumn foliage. In decaying cities and beyond aestheticcon 3 = „, , , rdinurb
<br /> bucolic suburbs alike, spreading siderations. For one suburbs
<br /> ; 3 this surrounding su subburb consider
<br /> curbside trees and wooded parks serve thing, trees shade ion bond
<br /> issue to
<br /> as an essential, cost- effective defense buildings and side- a $200 million
<br /> used to
<br /> against serious threats to the quality of walks and cool the air acquire forests, lands and other
<br /> used o
<br /> life for human residents. by transpiring up to
<br /> Logging in tropical lands is magnify- 100 gallons of water thr wildlife
<br /> ing the greenhouse effect, while timber apiece daily. That habita to comple
<br /> harvests in U.S. national forests are de- moderates the "heat 1 a Tanned 40-mil
<br /> 'i:
<br /> pleting our common biological heri- island” effect that can ; I / /` ., , natural lep.
<br /> I tage. The same rules of nature apply make downtown ar- i f University's
<br /> U
<br /> Yale niv
<br /> within the metropolitan sprawl where eas 5 degrees hotter °{ f niv
<br /> most Americans now are living. Nur- than surrounding f (, , / School Forestry is
<br /> the Balti
<br /> turing our own forested parks, urban countryside when the more Recr and
<br /> wetlands, backyard woods and even sun beats down on
<br /> streetside trees in concrete pots could stone and concrete, breeding urban Parks Department draft a plan that
<br /> turn out to be just as crucial for main- smog and costing the country an esti- calls for managing the city's 6,500
<br /> taining the natural elements that all of mated $1 billion a year for electricity to acres of parks according to ecological
<br /> us ultimately depend on. "This is just as run air conditioners. principles. Baltimore's plan will
<br /> important as preserving Yellowstone," Landscape architects at the Univer- administer the system along natural
<br /> says Nina Bassuk, director of Cornell sity of Arizona calculate that plans for watershed lines,
<br /> turn parks into envi-
<br /> University's Urban Horticulture Insti- planting500,000 native trees would re- ronmental classrooms for inner -city
<br /> tute. duce desert temperatures in Tucson by children, and recruit volunteer "tree
<br /> Right now, of course, it's hard to 3 degrees Fahrenheit, lowering cooling stewards" from community groups to
<br /> convince mayors, city council members costs as much as 25 percent. The mu- keep trees healthy in their neighbor-
<br /> and county commissioners who are nicipally owned electric utility in Rocky hoods.
<br /> struggling to pay their police officers Mount, North Carolina, hopes to avoid Those are revolutionary steps, but
<br /> and get the garbage collected that main- having to build new generating capac- it's time for local park agencies to stop
<br /> taining trees should be a high priority. ity by planting 27,000 trees around the being mere groundskeepers and begin
<br /> This year, New York City laid off its city.
<br /> acting as stewards of the natural envi-
<br /> chief forester, dismissed 100 climbers At the same time, urban forests help ronment. parks and greenbelts are
<br /> and pruners, and slashed its $5.2 mil- cleanse polluted city air —down close These days, p gr
<br /> lion tree budget to $660,000. Philadel- to the ground where we all breathe— more than amenities. Governments
<br /> phia has stopped planting new trees, by absorbing sulfur dioxide, ozone and need to treat forests and open space as
<br /> and Washington, D.C., has all but other contaminants. In Chicago's indispensable civic assets. No city or
<br /> wiped out its forestry staff. lakefront Lincoln Park neighborhood, village or town that lets its trees die
<br /> That trend is duplicated across the researchers from the U.S. Forest Ser- will last very long as a livable commu
<br /> land. U.S. cities and counties are plant- vice have calculated that local trees save nity.
<br /> GOVERNING September 1992 71
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