WFCR‘s Field Notes host/producer Laurie Sanders aired a report this morning about a visit with Springfield’s chief forester, Ed Casey, to discuss the status of the city’s trees. From the piece:
Two years ago, Springfield became the first community in Massachusetts to use GPS units, Palm Pilots, and new software to create a computer database of all its street trees. Every one of the city’s 31,000-plus street trees were identified, mapped, measured and inspected. Of those, only ten percent were considered to be in good condition. The rest were rated fair or poor, and 3,000 were either already dead, or so damaged, they needed to be cut down.
[Casey:] "There are streets where I drive down and I’m just aghast at the number of trees that are starting to fail and need to come down. You get a street with 20 trees and you put seven orange X’s out there, it’s a devastating effect, but that is in fact the reality of decline of the trees in the city right now."
Springfield’s Parks & Rec Department has a horticulture manual available in an eight-part series. Page three of the introduction (PDF) defines "citizen tree workers" as people who "do not have to be tree professionals," but are useful to urban forestry. From the page:
What can citizen tree workers accomplish?
? planting, especially bare root stock
? structural pruning (“training”) of young trees
? working around the tree: cutting suckers, weeding, and mulching
? pruning damaged, dead, or diseased limbs on small trees
? removing tree wrap, stakes, and ties after planting
? monitoring and reporting tree problems
? identifying sites for new trees
? collecting basic information for inventoriesWhy use volunteers?
? Volunteer efforts can have direct savings on your budget, and get crucial work done.
? As budgets and manpower shrink, trained volunteers can fill in the gaps.
? Community attitude toward trees and their care improves with the use of volunteers.How do I find such volunteers?
? Start with people who already give their time to the community, or look to citizen planners, Master Gardeners, garden clubs, youth groups, or secondary schools.
? You may want to include those people that call frequently to offer criticisms and suggestions about what to improve in the community.
So this is directed at people like that angry lady who called up the mayor’s office and cursed at the aide about DPW trucks hitting low-hanging tree branches. Or you, or me.
