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TT: Re: Forest -vs- Trees
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Merry Christmas to TreeTown -
Mark Stephens, in Ohio, has long been one of our best reporters,
writing persuasively on the need to restore native trees into our
local ecosystems. I think many will agree that his recent letter
was extremely thought-provoking. It effectively 'drilled down'
several pivotal issues (to borrow an old street forester's term --
now apparently the whole Internet's buzz-word of the week). Below
we are simply reiterating some of the latest comments. It is hoped
that such 'deeper' ecological thinking and political strategizing
will continue to inform the discussions here, into 1998 ...
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On Tue, 23 Dec 1997, Mark Stephens wrote:
> ... What about the soil? Is it
> like a woodland soil, with the ability to absorb a lot of rain water and
> slow runoff, or is it lawn? I have seen many wooded lots were the land
> owners clear the "tangled brush" and planted lawn grass, leaving just
> mature trees? This type of 'urban forest' doesn't do much for the local
> environment, plus it's on a clock that's ticking down until all the
> mature trees die. Would home owners act differently if told the value
> of and how to identify the local forest plants? Can an urban forest
> division act as the educator here? ...
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On Wed, 24 Dec 1997, Steve Morse wrote:
> The largest problem with ordinances that try to preserve understory is
> where do we start and stop enforcement. In "No cut" buffers the rules are
> generally that the area needs to be left in native vegetation but what
> about noxious weeds? In the general landscape, it would be better if the
> understory is not disturbed but it become a real enforcement nightmare to
> try to control behavior at this level. In many of the areas on our Island
> non-native plants (blackberries and scotch broom) are major part of the
> understory and it is not reasonable to not allow removal of these species.
> I would like to see the understory left in undisturbed state but in need to
> be a educational effort and not a regulatory one.
>
> Steve Morse
> Bainbridge Island, Washington
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On Wed, 24 Dec 1997, aesculus wrote:
> I gradually replaced nonnative invasive shrubs and vines(Ligustrum
> sinensis, Kudzu)
> with natives and have had very good success. I used deciduous
> hollies,Bottlebrush
> Buckeye, Hydrangeas,Crossvine, American Wisteria(W. frutescens) and others.
> It
> was quite successful and is much more estheitc. Try a gradual replacement
> if possible. Merry Christmas to all the Tree Towners
>
> craig/athens,ga.
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Richard Ellsberry again -
Thank you for your input, Steve and Craig. I confess outright that
much of this is over my head, but we have already heard testimony that
our colleague Gary Letteron has probably independently convinced the
City of Baltimore to halt plantings of the non-native Norway Maple
(apparently North America's *favorite* street tree). This is not a
condemnation of these highly desirable trees, only that they should
*not* be introduced into delicate (exotic) ecosystems. Morse's argu-
ments on the difficulties of enforcement are well taken, but these do
not negate furthering efforts to influence current planting policies.
One problem that each of us contiues to face is that of buying 'local'
plants from the local nursery or garden center. Often the workers
there simply don't know, the pots are not correctly marked, native
species are cross-bred with others or grafted onto others, or imported
from non-native populations. Again it is exciting to collect one's
planting stocks from local forests. We have long advocated trans-
planting trees from areas being demolitioned. This can be a wonder-
ful challenge, to see how many (or how big) the trees one can save.
And if we lose a few in the process, hey, we tried ...
Just some personal thoughts on a very interesting thread.
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Baltimore USDA Zone 7
==============================(TreeTown)===============================
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