"What is essential is invisible to the eye." So wrote Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in The Little Prince. It's true. We take our water, our air and our soil for granted until they are seriously threatened by scarcity or pollution. The same is true for trees. Ten years ago, trees were on the bottom of the public's list of what's important. When I would tell new acquaintances that I was a tree expert, (ar-bor-ist), a pained and polite silence was sure to follow. Global warming and the destruction of the rain forests has bumped up the status of trees somewhat since then. Still, the urban tree is widely regarded as an ornament - nice, but not necessary.
Caring for the trees that we already have is as important as planting new ones. A tree which would normally live two hundred years in a forest, will live only twenty years in the city, as an average. The most common causes of premature tree death are the easily remedied actions of people. Foremost amongst these are root and trunk injury, drought, and improper pruning. The Puget Sound basin leads the west coast in tree mutilations.
Whereas most tree abuse is inadvertent, tree topping stands alone as the only one that takes an extra expenditure of money and effort. It has been done so often that most people think that it is a form of pruning. Tree topping opens the tree trunk up to decay which slowly rots out the heart of a tree, causing it to die or become dangerous several years later. Simultaneously, topping causes an upsurge of messy, weakly attached re-growth called water sprouts or suckers. The tree's growth rate increases dramatically, and in a few short years it is a large as before. Many of the new branches are, however, weakly attached and can break in storms. Re-topping only creates additional suckers and further weakens the tree. In short, topping won't make a tree safer or shorter, or save a water view.
Too many in our society are only looking at the small picture (usually the one from their picture window) not the big picture. People are most adamant about the short term, the individual gain (I want a view, I don't like raking leaves). There is little thought to the cumulative benefit for the community. As a friend said to me, "The problem is - nobody's around for the long term."
The laws of the land reflect this. Cases in point are the view covenants springing up everywhere. Such ordinances require people to remove or, worse yet, top any and all trees to establish water views for the people uphill. When push comes to shove, the tree and the tree owner are most often the losers. Seattle has no tree protection ordinances. Anyone can cut down an historic, rare or otherwise special tree on their property with impunity. It takes only one "owner" in the life of a tree to mutilate or destroy it. A voluntary tree protection ordinance could reverse the trend. It would take only one owner to nominate a tree for protection in perpetuity.
PlantAmnesty is working on such a program, modeled after an existing one in Portland. We dedicated a Japanese umbrella pine last fall and we hope to dedicate another tree this April.
Legal protection for trees is a hot issue, given the property rights debate, which is why we emphasize the voluntary aspect of our proposed heritage tree program. But there wouldn't even be a need for legal protection if people thoroughly valued their trees and knew how to properly care for them. Nobody suggests that we need a law to get us to change the oil in our cars.
Poet William Blake wrote, "The tree that is to some tears of joy is to another, just a green thing that stands in the way." While half the people in the Puget Sound region seem to have declared war on trees, the other half are awakening to their beauty and grandeur. The City of Seattle Arborist, who is being bombarded with requests for tree removals (and topping for views), is at the same time processing a record number of permits for planting in the street right of ways (parking strips).
Trees have value, and very practical value at that. They are a form of property, and damage done to a tree by a storm, neighbor or unskilled tree worker can be given a dollar amount by a landscape appraiser. Appraisers can also calculate the total value a given tree adds to your property. The average amenity value that a stately, healthy tree adds to your property is about two thousand dollars. (Lawyers commonly ask for triple damages in cases of malicious tree damage.)
In the truest sense of the word, trees are "infrastructure." Don Willieke, nationally known proponent of the urban forestry movement once said, "We'd need trees if they were ugly and smelled bad." Now imagine our city without trees. The landscape is dominated by flat surfaces, hard angles and concrete. As a result, the engineers are desperate to solve several pressing urban problems. They need to invent a device which will: Slow rainstorm runoff from the paved surfaces that strains the sewer and water treatment systems; trap particulate pollution in the air and bring it to the ground for disposal (perhaps in the Fall); cool the city in the hot summer but which can be modified to allow warming sunlight in the winter (saving energy for both air conditioning and heating); and counteract the rising carbon and CO2 emissions. Now, how much will it cost to design, build, install and maintain these miracle machines in every neighborhood? And what will they look like?
The fact that the trees cost so little to install and maintain adds to the lack of respect among average citizens. Guy de Maupassant said in one of his short stories, "Men only value what they have to pay for." Although trees are a cheap way to accomplish a great deal, they still need respect and care. The urban environment is alien to them and they suffer for it. Like all infrastructure, it costs less to effectively manage the system than to replace it when it falls apart from neglect. But our city budgets don't reflect this practical sentiment. Trees and park budgets are the first to get cut and they get cut year after year.
Washington State Arbor Day will be celebrated on April 9 this year.
Arbor Day was begun by J. Sterling Morton, who kicked off a tree planting movement in Nebraska that spread through the country in the late 1800s. A similar tree planting movement is growing in America now, and Seattle is part of it. People in the volunteer movement often cite feelings of personal accomplishment and social benefit. Planting a tree is, in and of itself, an act of faith in the future. During large street tree plantings people often meet their neighbors for the first time. And so they begin to rebuild the sense of neighborhood too often lost in our inner cities.
PlantAmnesty's arborists will be pruning a grove of very old trees at Hiawatha Park, across the way from West Seattle High School, on California Avenue. One of them, an enormous red oak with a six-foot trunk and 100-foot crown spread will be receiving the Heritage Tree designation with plaque and ceremony. The tree work, pruning and dead-wooding will be done between nine am and noon. If you've never witnessed climbing and pruning in very large trees it may be worth to coming by to see them.
Arthur Lee Jacobson has done a lot to increase awareness of trees in Seattle by writing his book, Trees of Seattle, and by leading tree tours throughout the city. His erudite and colorful language is tailored for the layman and has inspired more than one person to look up while walking the city streets. Re-tree Ballard is one volunteer tree planting group that is re-greening the tree-less parking sites in that part of town. TREEmendous Seattle has tackled the task of coordinating tree planting projects, unifying efforts of the City, non-profit groups, and private enterprises. The City Arborist's office, chronically understaffed and under budgeted, scrambles to keep up with the Tree Steward Program to train volunteers to help care for the urban forest. And PlantAmnesty, our local crusading non-profit organization, distributes literature and advice on proper tree pruning and planting.
To celebrate Arbor Day this year you may care to learn more about trees. There are plenty of people and organizations out there to help you to be kinder to your trees. The National Arbor Day Foundation publishes an excellent series of free or low cost bulletins on tree topics. These can be useful to individuals, teachers, and municipalities. PlantAmnesty will, if you send two stamps, return to the writer any one of the following bulletins: "Saving Trees and Views," "How to Plant A Tree," or "Wrongs Done to Trees." And if you want to join the tree planting movement, you can contact the Seattle City Arborist, TREEmendous Seattle, or your local city forester or parks director.
On the state level, several matching funds grants are available to communities interested in urban forestry projects. Grants are available through the Department of Natural Resources by calling the Tree Link Hotline, 1-800-523-8733. They work as a clearing house for tree related information and resources.
And remember to take some time this spring, as the leaves begin to emerge from barren limbs, to appreciate our trees. Look up into the branches of a tree. Look closely. Breathe deeply. The leaves you are looking at manufacture the air you breathe. Out of nothing but water and sunlight the tree grows from a tiny seed to become one of the largest, longest lived organisms on the planet. I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes from a plaque at a grove of trees in Auckland, New Zealand: "When we plant her, let us think that we plant forever. Let it not be for present delight or present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for. And let us think that a time is to come when these trees will be held sacred because our hands have planted them, and men will say as they look upon the wonder and the substance of them, 'See this our fathers did for us.'"
Cass Turnbull, a Seattle landscaper, has set out on a "crusade" to stop what she views as improper pruning practices in the Seattle area. As a result, she has formed an organization known as PlantAmnesty, a group dedicated to encouraging and educating the public and professionals in the fields of pruning, renovating, designing and maintaining beautiful landscapes. In Seattle, the hub of the group's activity, PlantAmnesty members keep watch over trees and shrubs growing on public land and rights of way. They are quick to call city officials when a homeowner or tree service - or worse, a city crew - attacks a pruning job with more vigor than skill.
Resource List
The National Arbor Day Foundation
100 Arbor Avenue
Nebraska City, Nebraska 68410
(402) 474-5655
The Pacific Northwest Chapter of the International
Society of Arboriculture
P.O. Box 30713
Seattle, WA
(206) 784-1945
PlantAmnesty
906-NW 87th Street
Seattle, WA 98117
(206) 783-9813
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