The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-07-03
A Neglected Field
 Of Forestry
City Tree a Stepping Stone
 to Forest Preservation Problems of City Forester l-Brooklyn's Forest Park
Jacob J. Levison

N. Y
 Exclusive Service The Survey Press
 Bureau)
 Trained foresters often consider city tree problems too small to deserve their skilled attention. That all rests with the forester himself. He can make it small or he can find field even more varied and of as high a standard as the work of those con- nected with the national forests.
 The city tree is the natural stepping stone to the broader problem of na- tional forest preservation. If forest legislation is to be effected at all, then the interest of all citizens must be enlisted The average man acquires his first lesson in forest conservation from the trees around his own home in which he is naturally most inter I'll 6sfeF 'af,d Which have to him defin- ite meaning. The forester in his plea for the saving of national resources, unless the public has been taught some phases of the question in terms of local conditions. will fail to con- vert as many to his way of thinking on forest policies as he would had more attention been paid to city trees and their relation to forestry.
 The ordinary problems of the -city forester are planting, extermination of insects and disease, and protecting the street trees from accidental or wilful injury, such as cutting down of trees by shopkeepers whose stores they may slightly screen; protecting the trees from injury by public service corpor- ations and private promoters, and guarding them against gnawing horses, house movers, and street grad CTS. There are different ways of do- ing even this work There may be way of the modern scientific forester. There are very few trained foresters in this country in charge of park and street trees and the old-fashioned methods or rather no methods still prevail.
 But there are bigger problems in city tree work. The city forest park idea affords a chance to establish a model forest right in the city and to lay the principles of conservative for est management right at the threshold of every citizen. The parks of our cities have hitherto been looked upon in most instances as storehouses for elaborate buildings, ornamental cut stone and floral designs, so that to- day the common conception of a city park is the usual costly and orna- mental park found in almost every city. People usually do not think of the possibility of having bits of wood- land or miniature forests in the city There are only few forest parks in this country and while the cities are still young, it is possible for them to set aside small tracts of of<woodland in their suburbs at small cost, and within a few years they will find themselves the possessors of ground not only worth many times the orig inal cost, but also of inestimab ble value to the health and development of the citizens.
 The people of Brooklyn and Queens have set aside a tract of 536 acres of woodland in the heart of the city for a forest park and they are not bit sorry for 1t now. There have as yet been no funds designated for the development of this tract, but we est nursery of s0,000 seeding trees at a cost of one and one-half cents per tree, including the planting. This, too, is a novel feature in city tree work and offers unlimited opportuni- ties to the city forester. Citizens and school children come to study this nursery and they are beginning to realize that tree planting is not to expensive after all. Even where we have been obliged to buy larger trees for our park planting, we have this year purchased five hundred oaks and many other hardy trees two inches in diameter at two dollars each, instead of resorting to the usual method of buying larger trees at ten and twelve dollars each. The younger trees will take better to the soil, can be plant ed at a considerably smaller expense and in the end will catch up in growth with the larger specimens.
 The city forester can make his in- fluence strongly felt. He is constant ly in touch with citizens, helping them to solve their local tree problems. He meets them in their homes, he lec- lures to them in the public schools and to civic and social organizations, he writes for the local papers, maga- zines, and school journals.
 The city forester can bring the parks and boulevards in closer touch with citizens. He can teach them to know the common trees by label ing prominent specimens in the parks and along the boulevards He can issue guides to the trees for those desirous of more detailed study; he can have exhibits showing the vari- ous phases of tree planting and care. In Brooklyn We have had four exhibits of this sort in the past year. He can form tree clubs among adults and among school children and designate to them definite problems in the planting and care of the trees in their locality.
 We already have several such tree clubs in our schools and the adult club idea is spreading with equal rapidity. Several have been recently formed in Brooklyn where the residents of cer-