The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1911-07-20
/ NEGLECTED. FIELD
OF FORESTRY WORK
City Tree a Stepping Stone to
Forest Preservation-Some
of the Problems.
BY JACOB j. LEVlSoN.
Forester, Park Department, Brooklyn

their skilled attention. That all rests
with the forester himself. He can make
it small or he can find a field even
more varied and of as high a nda
as the work OF those connected with
the national forests.
The city tree is the natural stepping
stone to the broader problem OF ma
o forest preservation. IL forest
legislation is to be effected at all, then
the interest of all citizens must be en-
listed. The average man acquires MS
first lesson in forest conservation from
the trees around his own home IN
which he is naturally most interested
and which nave for him a definite
meaning. The forester in his plea Tor
the saving of national resources, un-
less the public has been taught some
phases of the question in terms OF local
conditions, will fail to convert as many
to his way of thinking on forest poll
cies as he would had more attention
been paid to city trees and their rela-
ton to forestry.
The ordinary problems of the city
forester are planting, determination OF
insects and disease, and protecting the
street trees from accidental or wilful in
jury, such as cutting down of trees by
shopkeepers whose stores they may
slightly screen; protecting the trees
from injury by public service corpora
lions and private promoters, ana
guarding them against gnaWing horses,
house movers and street graders. Ihere
are different ways of doing even TINS
work. There may be the old fashioned
erroneous way or the way of the mod
ern scientific forester. There are very
few trained foresters in this country
in charge of parks and street trees and
the old fashioned methods or rather
nc methods still prevail.
But there are bigger problems in city
tree work. The city forest park IDEA
affords q chance to establish a model
forest right in the city and to lay the
principles of conservative forest man
agement right at the threshold OF ev-
cry citizen. The parks OF u cities
have hitherto been looked upon In most
instances as s~torehouses for elaborate
buildings, ornamental cut stone ana
floral designs, so that the common con-
ception of a city park is the usual
costly and ornamental park found in
almost every city. People usually do
not think of the possibility of having
bits of woodland or miniature forests
in the city. There are only a few for
est parks in this country and while the
cities are still young, it is possible for
them to set aside small tracts of wood
land in their suburbs at a small cost,
AIT "ltiIii At Lew yeats tiCS "ii III
themselves the possessors of ground not
only worth many times the original
cost, but also of inestimable value to
the health and development of the cit
liens.
The people of Brooklyn and Queens
set aside a tract of 536 acres of
woodland in the heart Of the city for
a forest park and they are not a bit
sorry for it now. There nave as yet
been no funds designated for the de-
OF this tract, but we sue
ceeded in establishing there a forest
nursery OF $4,000 seeding trees at a
cost of IL cents per tree, including the
planting.
This, too, is a novel feature In city
tree work and offers unlimited oppor-
t~unities to the city forester. Citizens
and school children come to study this
and they are beginning to
that tree planting is not so
expensive after all. Even where we
have been obliged TO buy larger trees
for our park planting, we have this
year purchased 500 oaks and many
other hardy trees two inches in dame
ter at So each, instead of ~resorting to
usual method of buying larger
trees at $40 and S12 each. The younger
trees will take better to h soil, can
planted at a considerably smaller
and in the end will catch up
in growth with the larger specimens.
The city forester can make his in
fuence strongly felt. He is constantly
in touch with citizens, helping them to
solve their local tree problems. He
them in their homes, he lectures
to them in the public schools and to
civic and social organizations, he
writes for the local papers, magazines
and school journals.
D'l,a 1ifu fnractar oar hripu tho norlrc
and bouleyards in closer touch with
citizens. He can teach them to know
the common trees by labelling promi-
nent specimens in the parks and
along the b~oulevards. He can issue
guides to the trees for those DESTROYS
of more detailed study; he can have
exhibits showing the various phases of
trees planting and care. In Brooklyn
we have had -four exhibits of his 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 ms 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 RAJ
pldity. Several have been recently
formed in Brooklyn, where the resi-.
dents of certain streets got together
Tor the purpose of planting trees CO.
ODeratlVety on {nelr streets. Thl.
method nsure uniformity of species
form and age in the trees and con.
siderably reduces the cost. 1t alst
brought out innate civic pride Of the
club members, ana instead of stoppins
short with the trees, they invariably
went right on seeking other improve,
ments and inspiring the residents O.
their neighboring streets to do tn,
same.
The schools are much in need o
trees around then and the childre,
can De made TO pant them. Theycon
ditions in Brooklyn show this, where
out of the 166 public schools, sc, or s.
per cent, have no trees at all; 60, or g
per cent, have a few trees, and oni,
10, or 6 per cent. are completely sur,
rounded by trees. In other cities, tn,
| conditions are not much better.
The opportunities for effective wor]
IN city forestry are thus nuiaerous an,
varied, but how are they met by thos
at present in charge of the field
The majority of our towns an;
cities are not yet awake to their ire,
problems. 1t is quite true that thei
bivic pride has been aroused in man,
Instances to definite action, but thei
leaders have selected other banners a
reform n overlooked the trees. Thi
Is not because their trees do not nee,
attention. The trees of almost ever