(from thread: On Jan 7, 2008, at 11:05 AM, Michael von Schneidemesser
wrote:
Whoa, not so fast!
Invasive or not-native, they still may be desirable. In this case
providing shade and emotional comfort to at least
one bike rider. And there is no way to replace these functions
immediately with native trees.
As it is, ever since the arrival of the white man, the landscape has
been changed a lot, and there is no way to go
back . . . .
Invasive species need to be removed whether they are really aggressive
and destructive or just aggressive and destructive. I
have seen woodlands with almost no other plants living (and as a result
few animals as well) due to the heavy shading of
Norway Maple and the aggressive clonal growth of black locust. Just
because they don't work quite as quickly as buckthorn
or garlic mustard does not mean they do not n. . . .
etc.)
Dear Group,
Maybe I missed the gist of this thread, but I thought it began with a
call to save a tree-lined country or semi-country road from the power
company or township "tree cutters." Wasn't that where this began and
then turned into a platform for a discussion on governmental tree and
forest management?
The main point is that this is not a State forest, a tree farm, a nature
preserve or what ever else might require the expertise expressed in the
above posts------this is a scenic and delightful country road on which
to bike. (At least that is what I gathered from the first post.) In
the National Geographics of the first twenty years of the twentieth
century there were regular advertisements for the Davey Tree Surgery.
They could brace structurally unsound trunks and limbs; fill rotten
areas with concrete and make trees live on. Today they are simply
removed at the slightest provocation in most Wisconsin areas. The power
companies hire outside cutters whose money motivation is to cut
everything in sight with the slightest provocation. The villages and
real estate people feel treeless streets look newer and fresher. People
don't seem to object. But the people who do object are usually those
highest on the "economic scale." Ripon's most prosperous street--Watson
Street has all its trees and the power line find their way into and
through the trees. Elsewhere the power company is allowed to denude
everything.
But so what if the trees on "that beautiful tree lined country road" are
some inferior species and likely to fall down. Evidently they have
grown large without doing that until now? Of course send someone along
with a feel for engineering who might anticipate a tree in a dangerous
and precarious state. That is common sense. But live for the beauty of
that road TODAY. And plant the soundest trees for tomorrow. If the
current trees are "fast growing weed trees", when the new sounder trees
become giant, then remove the "weeds." But don't we all know that we
cannot predict the future of country roads? The STATE might declare the
entire tree lined expanse part of the INTERSTATE tomorrow!
Eric Westhagen
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