Comments on: In the Trees

By: a daughter's mother

a daughter's mother — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 11:55:38 +0000

Mike, my “lawn” needs no grants. It’s full of dandelions, daisies and violets. Other than the violets, which my son collects the pods from and scatters further, all are volunteers. And any grass that manages to survive my version of lawn care gets tolerated. Not sure whether any of them are natives, but they don’t require water, fertilizer, or frequent mowing. But for the ambitious out there, since that kind of project takes start-up work, that kind of grant sounds like just the thing – provided it survives Pawlenty’s unallotment fallout.

By: Mike Haubrich

Mike Haubrich — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:38:15 +0000

Right – lawn grass with shallow roots means fast runoff with lots of fertilizer and dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico. It also leads to green lakes in the Twin Cities. Ramsey County has programs (at least for now) to provide grants for people who wish to plant native ground covering with deeper roots and no need for fertilizer.

By: a daughter's mother

a daughter's mother — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:51:30 +0000

Speaking as someone who hangs a pair of suet feeders all winter to keep our local population of downy, hairy, red-headed and pileated woodpeckers happy, I will also speak up for leaving dead trees in place. This is not to be confused with any kind of preference for having them die in the first place, because I’m also speaking as someone who turned a lot where nothing taller than weeds and grass grew into one holding dozens of trees of several varieties after the house went up.

But dead buggy trees bring in woodpeckers. When a badly split willow came down a few years ago, we lazily left trunk pieces stacked in the back corner rather than industriously splitting them for burning. When we did finally start clearing them out, we discovered a woodpecker nest from a previous season in one section – one we’d never realized existed that close to the house.

Tree monoculture in urban areas is a problem waiting to happen, First it was all elms, loved for the way their tall branches arched over city streets. After Dutch elm, it was either ash or maples. Perhaps buying in bulk is cheaper for cities than using a little thought and adding oaks, lindens, pines, spruce, alder, locust, birch, ginko, etc. Concentrate a food supply and pests come in to dine and reproduce.

And do they all have to be tall trees? How about lilacs, chokecherries, honeysuckle, cherries, cranberries, hazelnuts, apples, mulberries, elderberries, dogwoods, apricots, serviceberries……? Oh, and let’s not get me started on a rant about this country’s insane love affair with lawn grass!

By: Stephanie Zvan

Stephanie Zvan — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:39:46 +0000

It is very sad to see, and I say that as someone who spends a fair chunk of every spring pulling up elm saplings.

By: GaryB

GaryB — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:42:28 +0000

My city originally had no naturally planted trees, they were all planted by hand, the vast majority of them elms. When Dutch Elm disease made its first appearance about 10 years ago the city instituted a program of replacement. Every year since then because of infection we have had to remove several trees, some of them close to 100 years old. While they are quickly replaced by willows, and the overall number of trees doesn’t diminish, it is really quite sad to see such majestic trees slowly disappear.

By: Mike Haubrich

Mike Haubrich — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 03:30:29 +0000

On the East Side of St,. Paul there is a small stand of wood and wetland (just north of Maryland and just east of Hazelwood.) The three acre patch is left alone by the city park and rec department, so that as trees die and fall they are left to decay and house fungi and beetles. I used to take the kids back there to show them how the cycle of life works, peeling back the bark to show them all of the life in the dead trees.

I never saw them as cookies good enough to eat, Greg, but I think the beetles were satisfied.

By: Stephanie Zvan

Stephanie Zvan — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:27:05 +0000

Jason, we didn’t have any trees appropriate for climbing anywhere student-friendly at our school, or I might have done the same. I’d probably have been reading Dostoevsky, though.

Becca, don’t you dare. Malaria needs foes too.

Sorry, Dan. All the sorrier because I’m sitting someplace where I can’t look out a window without seeing several trees.

Yes, Greg, but cookies are a sometimes food.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:47:32 +0000

I just want to put in a plug for the dead trees. Obviously, you can’t leave a dead tree standing in the city (and if you’ve got dead elm wood as firewood you are inviolation of an ordinance most likely and being really unethical). But where it is possible to leave a dead tre standing do so. To a majority of svanna/parkland (wooded prairie), woodland, and forest species, live trees are like cookies in the oven, and a dead tree is the cookies on a platter next to a nice tall glass of cold milk.

(Have I gone too far with this analogy?)

And yes, by “species” maybe I do mean nematids and fungi, but birds and mammals as well. One of the reasons osprey have become rare in many areas is the lack of the tall dead trees in which they nest. (I think they don’t nest in live treas because the young are thus more suseptible to predation, probably by owls. … my personal pet hypothesis, so don’t take that to the bank.)

So don’t kill the tree. But if you do, leave it’s magnificant corpse standing please. (Unless you can’t. It’s complicated.)

By: Dan J

Dan J — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:30:10 +0000

Investment for national infrastructure? How about putting a few thousand people to work in the national and state forest services? There’s nothing quite like the feeling of hiking through a towering forest. Now you’ve gone and done it… I want to get out to a forest this weekend, and I can’t because I have to work on the car. Well, maybe in a couple of weeks.

By: becca

becca — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:28:57 +0000

Maybe I’ll give up on humanity and go cure tree diseases…