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TT: First-Time Foresters
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To TreeTown -
Can you recall your first time? With spring just a few weeks off, what
better occasion to share 'personal transitions into Community Forestry?'
For me it started 8 or 9 years ago, in my early 30's I was looking at
our inner-city SW Baltimore neighborhood where some of the folks (calling
themselves The Slum-Busters) had been planting street trees, often
illegally. They were legendary, and eventually slowed down their out-
of-pocket-funded activities somewhat. I held in great esteem our S-B's,
but also reasoned that with the energies that it requires to establish
a few trees, one might be successful with even more, attempting some
as yet untested methodologies.
A little research found that homeowners could request street trees
from The City, by filing the requisite tree request forms. With a few
phone calls to City Hall, and support from Hollins Market Neighborhood
Association Inc. we began instituting a 'class action' drive for trees.
Primitive by today's standards, our community tree request brought up
2 unexpected issues. The 1st was that many addresses had out-of-town
or (otherwise) negligent landlords, but The City appeared perfectly
happy to provide trees asked for by the community association! The
2nd shocker was that some neighbors had filed for trees 6 YEARS EARLIER,
without any (satisf)action whatsoever. Those folks, as you can guess,
got their trees in that first season.
Our first petition was for around 20 trees (told you it was primitive :)
and all were delivered as I recall, with the understanding that another
20 would be requested in spring, with similar results. (I should point
out here that Baltimore was budgeting $300-US for PLANTING a single tree,
not counting jack-hammering the pits which we sometimes did ourselves :).
That $300 did not cover the purchase of the trees, which in recent years
have become much more mature and costly, thankfully.
Our colleague Gary Letteron opened up the Neighborhood Tree Nursery
around 5 years ago on a donated empty rowhouse lot. It was immediately
visited by Mayor Kurt Schmoke, Maryland Governor Parris Glendening,
emmissaries from Yale's Forestry School and other dignitaries. From
its outset The Nursery began turning over hundreds of potted trees
annually and continues to serve as a model for other urban communities.
It is astonishing how productive and cost-effective a small yard of
potted trees can be, and how willing local folks are to contribute to
such an effort. My apologies for going on at such length, but you
can see the wonders that this has worked for me, having had no previous
experience in botanicals. Today, Gary and I are happy to share our
triumphs, and occasional setbacks, with anyone who will, uh, post ...
Richard@Flora.Com
TreeTown ListOp
Baltimore USDA Zone 7
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